


Be Careful What You Wish For

by Morrigan_Healy



Series: And Perhaps Be Welcomed Back Again [2]
Category: A Little Less Sixteen Candles a Little More "Touch Me" - Fall Out Boy (Song), Bandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - A Little Less Sixteen Candles (Music Video), F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 05:01:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 27,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15135668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morrigan_Healy/pseuds/Morrigan_Healy
Summary: It's summer after Tell Me You Won't Forget, and everything has gone wrong, as usual. Creepypastas trying to kill everyone? Certain band members driving everyone crazy? Another friendship tested by supernatural boundaries? This summer is nowhere near as relaxed as it should have been, especially compared to spring break. Part two of 4.





	1. Chapter 1

They can't hurt you. They're not real. Turn on the light and the shadows disappear, the creepy things in the night go hide away and the reflection in the mirror doesn't seem so foreboding. The creatures in those stories aren't real - there's no such thing as monsters or demons or ghosts, and the things that go bump in the night have a natural explanation. Right? Right? It's dark, every light in the house is off, and the two teenage girls stare wide eyed at the computer screen, scrolling through multitudes of creepypasta, knowing sleep won't come easily tonight. Doesn't help that it's raining and thunder cracks and lightning fills the air every few minutes, but hey, that's what makes a scary story, right?

One click. Seconds of dead air, then almost seizure inducing blinking lights and nails-on-chalkboard audio with a picture of Jeff the Killer onscreen. Clicking off, both girls began to laugh.

"I think that's enough creepypasta for tonight," the elder girl announces, pulling her hair back into a low ponytail, the younger blonde simply staring at the blank computer screen.

"You do know our mind does play tricks on us when it's this late, right? And after what happened during spring break, I don't think we want anymore tricks just showing up."

Amelia sighed, having remembered the concerts she and AJ had attended the spring break of their senior year.

"Right, like a certain singer is just going to show up in your room or something .And I'll somehow end up playing hockey with Simple Plan," she countered with a grin, right before a particularly loud clap of thunder sounded, and suddenly the house really was dark, the computer screen going pitch black and the clock shutting off as the power went.

"Fuck." the blonde mumbled, hand instantly tightening on the other girl's shoulder.

"Oh come on, you're the one that constantly wishes she was a vampire, and yet you're scared of the dark?" Amelia giggled, reaching for her phone so the pair could at least see.

She wasn't expecting a hiss in reply nor the glare she'd received when the light finally settled on AJ's face.

"I don't wish anymore. Spring break ruined my life. To a certain extent, I suppose, but at least we graduated. What happened to going out on Warped like the boys promised?"

The two started walking out of the back room, only to stumble into the stairwell leading up to AJ's room.

"Don't you think that was just a dream, AJ? I mean, what are the chances that they'd even remember us?"

"You know what would be cool? You saying it was just a dream that you got bit, 'cuz I'm about three seconds away from driving these puppies into your neck," the blonde retorted, smiling enough to show off her fangs - which, oddly enough she still hadn't gotten used to.

Immediately she smiled at the afterthought of what William might've told her after hearing her say that, he'd insist it was unladylike that she threaten to bite her best friend, but he'd smile all the same as she walked into his arms.

"Alright, so I'll stop reminding you you're a vampire. But the other thing I just think would be really cool...and I know this might seem a little odd, but - dude, what if all that creepypasta stuff was real? Like Slenderman was abducting kids and the Rake was clawing people's eyes out and those video and that picture of Smile Dog really drove people insane," Amelia explained.

"Okay, that's enough internet for tonight."

After AJ managed to find a few flashlights, she and Amelia got ready for bed.

Since AJ's parents were out of town for the weekend and her older brother was spending the night at his girlfriend's, AJ figured Amelia could sleep in his room across the hall.

Amelia figured it would work, simply because she liked to go to bed a little earlier than AJ and she knew the younger girl would often stay up til god knows when working on fanfiction and listening to music.

But tonight, as Amelia stretched out on the twin bed, she couldn't help feeling something was just a little off. Like, maybe that what she said - even jokingly - maybe was a possibility? She hadn't thought vampires had existed, and yet during Spring break her best friend had turned into one.

With a smile, she looked at her phone. It was 11:11. Time to make a wish.

Adeline tried to get to sleep that night, but the power outage really wasn't helping - she'd always slept with music, and as a last resort, she left the music player on her phone playing all night. But after about twenty minutes of the same haunting piano melody she'd listened to while she read creepypasta, she realized it probably wasn't best to be listening to that.

"Great. Back to Grisly Reminder. It's really too bad I don't get those coffeeshop dreams anymore, I sort of miss them. I wonder if he still remembers me?"

Getting up, she intended to go downstairs for a glass of water.

The un-nerving silence of the still power-outage house bugged her quite a bit, so she began to hum something as she walked, taking the stairs as quietly as she could as to not wake Amelia. When she finally got into the kitchen, making her way around the darkened room seemed easier than before, perhaps because her senses had heightened.

As she reached for a glass in the cabinet, memories came flooding back - and she almost wished this was the cabinet in the kitchen on the Dandies' mansion, where it was full of wine glasses instead of simple picnic cups.

Her own quick intake of breath surprised her, and AJ looked around, just having that feeling again, almost like it was Spring break all over again, and he was aware of her every move.

"You can't scare me. Those stories aren't real, and I'm not afraid of you," she whispered into the unending darkness, if only to reassure herself, thoroughly shocked when a familiar stepped out of the nothingness leading to the basement / back porch.

"I never said you needed to be afraid of me, love, nor that those childish ghost stories were a figment of anyone's imagination." A low voice spoke, but she immediately knew who it belonged to, and within seconds had thrown herself into him, face pressed into the downy fox pelt that hung over his shoulder.

"I KNEW you wouldn't forget me! About Warped, about all of it! But how'd you get- I don't- I'm just-" she stuttered, at a loss to explain herself.

William Beckett only smiled, hugging her tighter to him, one hand running through her curls as he laughed softly, kissing the top of her head.

"Hush, my dear. You won't want to wake your friend."

"How'd you-"

"Did you really think the power outage was the storm's fault? You know Chislett can control electricity far better than lightning rods can redirect it," he explained with a smile as she looked up at him in wonder.

"But then-"

"I just wanted to check up on you...the boys haven't quite been feeling right, it's as though we all know something's wrong but we don't know exactly what..."

"Like how I felt today...something's wrong, I just know it, but I can't figure it out. Maybe it's all those ghost stories I've been reading..." She shook her head, stepping out of his arms, thinking she'd go back upstairs.

"You'd be wise to keep an open mind about those things. And I should note, you're walking rather at a uneven step - as if you don't want to move."

She smiled, fangs visible as the flashlight in her pajama bottoms pocket shed enough light to see.

"Well, if you're here...this is a power outage. And I don't exactly like sleeping in complete silence...only thing is Amelia's over and I think she'll freak out if she notices-"

"There's nothing stopping me from just wiping her memory again. I'll just make her think it's a dream." William reassured, stepping ahead of AJ as he set a foot on the stairs, reaching out his hand to her, "Come now, let's make sure you get some sleep tonight."

And AJ could only smile, knowing it was exactly like Spring break, all over again. Except this time, maybe everyone wouldn't be trying to kill each other.


	2. Chapter 2

Amelia woke up the next morning feeling quite refreshed, and after doing some morning yoga, she decided to check on AJ to see if the younger girl was up.

"AJ? It's ten o'clock, shouldn't you be up by-" she started, poking her head into the blonde's room, only to almost have a heart attack when she realized who actually was there.

Rubbing her eyes, she blinked, rubbed them again, and - damn - he still was there.

William Beckett lay stretched out on AJ's bed, she curled into him perfectly asleep, one hand splayed over his heart, her other arm covered by the pelt the leader of the Dandies often wore.

Almost as if he had sensed her presence, the elder vampire's eyes slowly opened and took in her form, realizing how bad it must have looked.

"Amelia. I realize how bad this must appear, but I promise - there's not a mark on her. I'm only here to protect her - I just feel something coming, and it's not for the best."

"Don't we all?" the brunette replied, amazed she was calm.

William only smiled as if to agree, then gently nudged the still sleeping Adeline.

"Adeline...love...wake up, darling."

"Mfphm. Five more minutes." The blonde complained, lifting a hand to swat at him, although he caught it mid-movement before she could do anything, and with that, pulled her up into a sitting position against him, "There, that's not so bad, is it?"

"Leave me alone...You're lucky I was too in shock to really do anything last night," she replied, and to her dismay Amelia could immediately pick up the flirty tone in her friend's voice.

"Oh god, please don't turn into that teenage couple that's constant sucking face in the hallways...AJ you know what I mean."

"HEY! I wouldn't be that bad! I just...so I'm attached, deal!" she protested, sighing as she stood up and bent to touch her toes, satisfied when her entire back cracked.

"That's better. And uh...William...how exactly did you get in last night?"

He shrugged, getting up after her, walking to her closet to grab the robe he knew she'd want to wear, "You must forget things an awful lot, Adeline. You gave me a spare key before you and the girls went back at the end of Spring break...but I wouldn't need the key anyways, you should know vampires can teleport and such."

"And if they go by the name Adam Siska they can scare the shit out of you when they do that," Amelia deadpanned, remembering how the youngest Dandie had often showed up out of nowhere at times.

"I'm surprised at how...civil you're behaving, dear." William stated, looking towards Amelia, who suddenly wanted to blush.

"Uh, well...let's just say I'm kinda used to the idea of you being around, I mean, in person it's different, but she never shuts up about you anyways so what's the point?"

AJ bit her lip and giggled, "Amelia! Don't...you're making me sound worse than I already am! But...hey, what are we thinking for breakfast? If you wanna go make pancakes, I think I'm gonna sleep in a bit more - William, you wouldn't mind would y-"

If Amelia hadn't noticed the slightest eyebrow raise she had given him or the way her gaze had slipped to his lips and then the pillow he was leaning against, Amelia wouldn't have realized what she meant.

"AJ, don't. you. dare. I'm going to go make pancakes, and the both of you are coming with me. I realize William is the oldest one here, but I don't trust the two of you alone. Now come on."

"Exactly why Carden should've turned you," AJ singsonged as they headed downstairs, "Because that? With an attitude like that, you could've curbed his trigger happy illusion self. No more jinxing random people into things they can't see."

William laughed, "Love I don't think Amelia would have changed him one bit."

The three stopped as Amelia came to a dead halt at the foot of the stairs, having heard muffled voices.

"Dude, what if they freak out 'cuz we've just shown up?"

"You had the key, it's fine."

"Yeah, but we're making breakfast for them...you don't think that's creepy?"

"Well fine, don't eat these chocolate chip nutella crepes. Losers."

"Hey! I didn't say we were going to eat them!"

AJ turned to Amelia, who nodded.

"Holy shit...is that really who I think? Fuck, if it's anything like break...should I take him back up-"

"Yeah. I don't want you both getting ripped in two. Let me talk to them first."

"Fine."

With that, AJ and William stayed in the stairwell, listening while Amelia went to go talk to none other than Simple Plan, who had somehow gotten into her kitchen and were making breakfast.

After calming her racing heart, Amelia turned the corner and entered into the kitchen. The guys were all standing there, backs turned to her. They were arguing about something. She cleared her throat and they all turned to look at her.

"What the hell are you guys doing in my kitchen?" she asked

"Isn't it obvious? We're making you breakfast," David responded, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, but how did you get in? I never gave you a key or anything," she replied, utterly confused.

"Metalbending," Pierre replied with a cheeky grin. Upon seeing the horrified look on Amelia's face, he continued. "Don't worry, I didn't distort the locks or anything. It still locks."

Amelia nodded, unsure of what to say.

Before she had the chance to say anything, a pair of arms enveloped her, picked her up, and spun her around.

"Hey Seb, how's it going?" she replied with a giggle

"It's going great, how are you?" he replied, running a hand through his hair.

A moment of silence fell between them all as Jeff continued to make breakfast.

"So, I know that you guys didn't come here just to make us breakfast. Why are you really here?" Amelia asked

The five of them looked nervously at each other.

"Well, we just wanted to make sure you were okay," Chuck started.

"Why? What's going on?" she asked

"It's just...well, weird things have been happening in Montreal and we wanted to make sure you and AJ were okay."

"Weird stuff like what? Another conference or something?"

"Not exactly. In the last month, twelve people have either gone missing or died under mysterious circumstances."

"That's nothing new. You guys should be used to weird stuff like that. Couldn't it have been a wayward werewolf or something?"

Seb shook his head. "No. Not even the most civilized werewolves would kill without a reason. And it's not vampires, either. The authorities don't know what it is."

"What's even weirder is that seven of the abductions happened to children, and according to eyewitnesses, they all saw the children walking away with a very tall man in a suit with unnaturally pale skin," Jeff added as he put the last of the crepes onto a plate.

Amelia's heart started to race. Surely it couldn't have been….

Before she had time to complete her thought, AJ and William walked in, enticed by the smell of breakfast.

In an instant, Seb had thrown himself in front of Amelia, teeth bared in a snarl. Pierre assumed a fighting pose beside him.

"What the fuck are you doing here, Beckett?" Sebastien asked, his voice low and dangerous

"Relax, Lycan. I mean you no harm. In fact, I came here to check on the girls," he replied smoothly, his arm around AJ's shoulder.

Amelia saw Seb visibly tense, but he made no further movements.

"Why?" he replied, eyeing William dangerously.

"I heard you talking about the events that happened in Canada. Coincidentally, the same things have been happening in Chicago. I wanted to make sure that the girls were okay."

It was a moment before Seb spoke.

"So, that must mean you can feel it too."

Beckett nodded solemnly.

"What do you mean, he can feel it too? What's going on?" AJ piped up

Sebastien paid her no mind.

"Assemble the rest of your men. I'll call Gerard. Sounds like we need to have a talk."


	3. Chapter 3

"Are we just going to ignore that Amelia and I are in our pajamas? If I'm going to have the entirety of the Dandies, Simple Plan and My Chemical Romance in my house, I'm not just going to be in my pajamas. Like, no, it's not that kind of sleepover."

"AJ, how much caffeine have you had today?" Amelia asked, eyeing the keurig that was already turned on.

"None yet...but you know how much I had last night, right? I'm surprised I can see straight. I'm gonna go get in the shower and actually try to look presentable if this whole thing is actually happening." she replied, turning back around to head down the hallway, and once again, Amelia had about five seconds to stop her before she said something stupid.

She didn't think she'd actually be able to stop AJ, but she could prevent William from helping the situation. And without thinking, one hand had grabbed at the tall vampire's suit jacket sleeve, her voice slipping into the all-too-common mother hen mode she often used whenever AJ just was being stupid and needed reining in.

"Don't. You. Dare. I know what she's thinking, and you do too. Don't make it worse."

William only acknowledge her with a half smirk and an eye roll.

"Do you really think we're that bad? Vampires of my age do know how to show a little decorum, even if a young one like Adeline isn't exactly well versed in subtly."

"Well I could fix that!" She called from the bathroom, the shower muffling her voice.

"NEVERMIND!" Amelia yelled back, turning her attention back to Simple Plan as William shrugged, grabbing for his cell phone and walked off into the living room.

"So we're just gonna have everyone show up here...and you're all actually NOT going to kill each other? Yeah, I can see this going real well."

By the time AJ had gotten back up into her room and actually started looking for something to wear, she was fuming.

Absolutely nothing was dandyish anymore. Granted, she'd kept the one good dress she'd liked, but she'd lent it to a friend for some anime convention, and had never seen it again.

"Great. I knew I shouldn't have let Miranda near my stuff...now what am I gonna - Oh. OH! Graduation dress, hello! Geez, once Amelia sees this she's gonna have a fit...ugh, now I've gotta do makeup and hair just to make it all work...here's hoping I still have the shoes..."

She found tucked into the back of her closet, and it was just as pretty as the day she'd gotten it in June. It was a deep purple color, with long lace sleeves, a lace insert at the bustline and a lace underlayer at the skirt hem. The top layer of the dress was made to look like it wraps around the lace underlayer and it also had a low neckline, cinched midsection accented a brooch and ruffled asymmetrical hemline.

After she managed to zip the back up, she caught a quick glance of herself in the mirror.

"I should probably just thread a ribbon like a headband and hope that's enough," she mused, reaching for the drawer the held various crocheted headbands and flower clips and ribbons she'd become accustomed to sticking in her curls.

"There. And look, shoes. Perfect."

The tstrap sandals weren't hard to pull on, and after throwing on two coats of mascara and a dusting of lavender eyeshadow, she figured it was finally alright to go downstairs.

And count the reactions, but mostly get down the stairs without tripping in said sandals she had on.

Seeing as she was still in pajamas herself, Amelia excused herself and went to her room to change. She threw on an old shirt, capri pants, and brightly colored tennis shoes. Slung around her hip was a leather skin, which was filled with water. She had gotten it from Chuck when she was in Chicago during spring break.

She tied her long hair back into a ponytail and went back out into the living room. Since Seb and his friends took up her entire couch, she stood next to them. Seb was walking around the living room, obviously having a rather animated conversation with Gerard, judging by how much he was flailing his hands.

"No no no, listen to me! All I know is that weird things have been happening in Canada and according to Beckett, the same things have been happening in Chicago. I think we need to have a talk! No, I can't make any promises that it won't end up a blood bath. Yes, I'll try to be civil if you guys will. Okay fine, see you in a little while," he said and hung up.

He sat down on the couch and ran his hand through his hair.

"So, is this going to be as bad of an idea as I think it will be?" Amelia asked

Seb shrugged. "I'm sure hoping not."

William walked back from wherever he had been, AJ clinging to his arm. She was all decked out in her fancy graduation dress. Amelia rolled her eyes. She could already feel a headache coming on.

"The boys will be here shortly," William announced.

True to his word, about five minutes later, the rest of his men had assembled in the living room. Amelia was unnerved, to say the least. She especially didn't like the looks that Mike Carden was giving her. Every time she looked at him, he was staring at her, licking his lips. It creeped her out.

She didn't have much time to decipher the meaning of his looks before My Chemical Romance apparated into the room.

AJ giggled as she looked over everybody in the room.

"Holy fuck. I knew this was going to be awe-!" The last word died on her lips as she caught the glare from William, no doubt because the rest of the gang was here, she was expected to be all dandy and ladylike again, including language.

Amelia only sighed, leave it to the youngest person in the room to be happy about possibly having world war three in her living room.

"So..." she started, trying to explain things before a fight could break out.

"You're all here because we all obviously feel something's going wrong. Seb and William have both noticed unusual occurrences in their hometowns, and I'm willing to bet Gerard, you guys are having problems in Jersey. Right?"

"Asides from the usual, not really. Unless you count waiting for these damn conferences all over again, what is this, a bi-annual thing now?" Mikey said, rather annoyed at the fact he was in the same room as the group of vampires that had kidnapped Amelia not five months ago.

"Hey, not like we want to be here either, mutt. It's only courtesy that we showed up so William wouldn't have to take your entire lot on by himself." Carden retorted, a rather satisfied smile on his face.

"Hey, hey, hey - there'll be none of that! Boys, you know better - and this is my house, my rules. I might be younger than all of you, but because of that I'm sure I can match you abilitywise, and you all remember what I did to Pete, so don't test me." AJ interjected, turning around to face the rest of the Dandies.

"And here we go." David mumbled, Amelia nodding in agreement.


	4. Chapter 4

"No one asked for your comments, you stupid little half-breed," Brendon sneered, leering at David.

Before David could stand up, Sebastien put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a look that told him to sit down and keep quiet. At the same time, AJ managed to raise her hand to just lightly smack the back of Brendon's head, earning her surprised looks from the rest of the boys.

Beckett shot a disapproving glance at Brendon, who at the moment had given AJ a 'what-the-hell-was-that-for' glare.

"I apologize for Brendon's remark. We are here to have a civilized discussion, nothing more, nothing less. Now, let's all start acting like adults. Sebastien, could you or your friends please explain exactly what has been happening in Montreal?"

Seb looked at his friends before he started speaking.

"Well, for the past few weeks, all of us, even Chuck and Pierre, who are mortal, have been feeling uneasy. Like there's this heaviness in the air that we can't explain. At first we kind of just brushed it off like it was nothing. That's when weird things started happening," Seb began.

"Please, you turn into a walking shag carpet once a month. How much weirder can things in Canada be?" Brendon remarked.

Before William could admonish him for his remark, Bob used the Stinging Jinx to leave a nasty welt on the side of Brendon's face. He walked over to him and looked him square in the eye, wand pointed at his heart.

"I've only been here about five minutes and I am already sick of your haughty attitude. Contrary to what you may think, you are not better than anyone in this room and you don't need to make a fucking comment every time someone says something. Make one more comment about anything, and I will cut you down right where you are. Do you understand me?" he asked; his voice low and serious.

Though he saw anger flash in Brendon's eyes, he didn't respond. He only nodded.

"Don't mind me. Continue," Bob said, walking back over to where Mikey and the others stood.

"It started off simple. A few kids all under the age of ten went missing. That's not uncommon where we live. Soon though, two kids turned into three, which turned into five, and eventually to seven. The police haven't been able to locate any sign of these children and there's no indication that vampires, werewolves, or any other supernatural creatures are to blame," Sebastien continued.

"Okay, so if vampires or werewolves didn't take the kids, what did?" asked Michael Guy Chislett

"We don't know, but that's not even the weird part. What's really weird is that according to eyewitnesses who last saw the children, they were all seen walking away with a man who was very tall and pale, wearing a black suit. They said that he had no discernible facial features, either," Jeff answered.

Amelia was lost in thought, her mind spinning. She knew there was only one thing that could be described like that. To make matters worse, even though she was looking down at the ground, she could still feel Carden's eyes on her, watching every little move. When she looked up, sure enough, he was staring at her

She excused herself to go get some water and to her displeasure, he followed her into the kitchen. She set the glass down into the sink and turned to face him.

"Do you have a staring problem or something?" she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest defensively

"No, I just like what I see," he replied, grinning.

"If you like it so much, why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer," she retorted.

In an instant, he crossed the kitchen and placed himself in front of her, effectively trapping her between himself and the counter.

"Why would I take a picture when the real thing is right here?" he asked quietly as he stroked her cheek gently.

Amelia's heart started to race, but whether it was from fear or embarrassment, she wasn't sure. Before she could prepare herself to attack with Waterbending, Frank and Gerard walked into the room.

"Is there a problem here?" Frank asked

Carden turned to look at him.

"No, there's no problem," he replied.

"Well, there's going to be one if you don't get away from her," Gerard said, baring his fangs threateningly.

Carden just smirked and flitted away, back to join the others.

"You okay?" Gerard asked, putting a hand on Amelia's shoulder

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said with a nod.

With that, they walked back out into the living room and Amelia placed herself at Sebastien's feet.

"Well." AJ started, having noticed Amelia's reaction, incidentally having had the same chain of thought in her head, "There is a way to define all this stuff, I just didn't think it was real...they're just internet horror stories, for those lazy nights in summer when you can afford to stay up 'til three AM and scare yourself."

"And may we remind you last spring break none of you guys thought you'd be thrown into this type of stuff and yet we're all in your living room," Spencer added.

"See that's the scary part - knowing that all that stuff is real - who knows what else is? That's why if this stuff is really happening like you say it is, we're all going to need to work together now more than ever bec-"

"Work together?" Both Mikey, Amelia and Seb had protested at once, each looking at someone else across the room, and it was no surprise that the people they were looking at had answered with protests of their own.

"William, seriously, I can't work with-" Brendon began before AJ had thrown the decorative pillow directly at his face from the couch where Simple Plan sat, "I told you not to test me. Now shut up. Please. I'm asking nicely; do not make me have to ask again."

The entire room was quiet, except for the voice in the back of Amelia's head.

Aaaannnnndddd there goes any chance of 'old' AJ sticking around.

"In short...I think what we're dealing with here, are creepypastas."

"AJ, you can't be serious. They're not real! They're internet fodder! Nightmare fuel! I know we said it'd be cool if they were - but-"

"Amelia, face it. Tall pale man in a black suit. Seen with children. Next thing you know we've got the Rake chasing after us in a dark forest and psychopathic murderers after us in our sleep!" she continued, and at her words, Beckett wrapped his arms around her waist to hold her closer, slightly taken aback by the degree of excitement in her voice.

"Creepypastas?" Ray asked, unsure of what the term even was.

"It's a short story on the internet - usually involving some type of monster of serial killer or something like that." Amelia rattled off.

"And this guy in the suit...he's one of them?" Chuck continued.

"Yeah...he's called the Slender Man. Or Slendy, but that's only by some. He's even got a video game named after him."

"Oh god, can we not bring up video games? I sure hope none of you play Majora's Mask..." AJ trailed off, giggling after, "Ben drowned. You shouldn't have done that. Cleverbot knows."

Amelia only shot her a look - those creepypastas probably weren't the best to bring up.

"Okay, so these creepypasta things, they're just stories, right?" Gerard asked, trying to focus the conversation again

Amelia nodded. "Yeah, they're sort of like urban legends. They're like….you know how there's the legend of Jersey Devil? It's like that."

As soon as Amelia mentioned the Jersey Devil, Gerard, Mikey, Ray, and Frank all turned to look at her.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" she asked

"Amelia, there are several things that you just never talk about. The Jersey Devil is one of them," Mikey said, dead serious.

"Why not? Aww, don't tell me the big bad wolf over there is scared of some story! Poor baby!" Mike Carden said in a mocking voice.

Mikey snarled at Mike and before anyone could stop him, he had Carden pinned up against the wall by his throat.

"You think you're so high and mighty, don't you? Just because you're immortal doesn't mean you're invincible. You might already be dead, but I'll kill you again," Mikey said, raising a clawed hand.

"Mikey, that's enough! Let him go," Gerard demanded.

He nodded to say that he had heard Gerard. Before he dropped Mike's body to the ground, Mikey leaned in and growled in his ear, "Don't think that I haven't noticed the looks you've been giving Amelia either. If you lay a finger on her, I. Will. Kill. You."

With that, he let Mike fall to the ground and walked back to where Gerard was standing. William had heard Mikey's comment and looked suspiciously at Mike, who avoided his gaze.

"Alright, this clearly isn't working. What I'm going to do is cast a series of protective enchantments between all of us, seeing as we're already divided into sides. No one is going to be able to cross these enchantments until I remove them. That way, there's no more physical fighting," Bob said as he began to wave his wand.

After the enchantments were in place, everyone seemed to feel a little more calm, though they couldn't tell if it was from the magic, or if it was Jon Walker, manipulating the emotions of everyone in the room.

"Okay, so we know what's been happening in Canada. What's going on in Chicago?" Amelia asked, looking at William. She again ignored Mike's lingering stare.

"Well, according to the latest police reports, there have been 78 homicides in the past month. That number is nothing new, seeing as we have a fairly large vampire population. Of the 78 homicides, more than half of them have been from unusual circumstance and they have been both human and nonhuman deaths. Some were disembowled, others jumped in front of trains...the list goes on. Since we have very few Lycans in Chicago, it's unlikely that it was a Lycan. Whenever I have gone to investigate the murders, there has also always been a strange scent at the scene. Whatever it is, it's not human, but it's not vampire either. It's almost like if evil had an odor, that's what it would smell like," William stated.

"So now that we know that, what do you think we should do?" Gerard asked

"Well, safety is certainly our first concern, for both ourselves and the girls. Being most of us already are nonhuman, we're inviting danger to come our way in these cases, even if we're the ones chasing after it in the first place," William started, only to have AJ cut him off a few seconds later.

"But if there's safety in numbers, don't you think it's better to have more of us? I mean...that...can't be...well, killed? I understand most of us are vampires, yeah, but the lycans, onis and elemental benders aren't assured immortality, and Amelia, I'm sorry, to be honest you're a fragile little human that can bend water when she gets angry."

"Oh, great thanks. I had no idea, AJ."

"And I mean, yeah, you've got MyChem and Simple Plan looking after you, but what if - let's just say we all get separated or something. I know I'm fine with William and the rest of the boys, but...won't you want a backup team? You already know them...and I'm sure they're well familiar with we're dealing with."

Amelia paused, thinking. And then everything clicked.

"No. No way in hell are we going back there. You think anyone else here is going to want to go through that again? We've already tried killing each other once, let's not do that again."

"OH COME ON! I'm not talking EVERYONE! I'm just saying...well, Myeong, Marley, Xena and Rose. Basically those of us that have been bitten, considering I'd have a bit better control of the coven now." she explained, and then everyone else there knew what she meant.

"It's not another conference, there's no need to bring in more people than we've already got." Ray stated.

"He's right. Endangering you guys once was enough." Pierre pointed out, to which William was actually quick to agree with, "Although the rest of your friends may still be newborn vampires and you think they'd be better able to protect your friend, I don't think getting them together is going to help any."

"Yeah, given you'd all be sucking face constantly seeing as half of your boys are hooked up with them." Amelia deadpanned, not surprised when AJ turned to look at her.

"Hey! Can we stop? I know I'm bad, but hell, that doesn't mean the others would be!"

"Says the matriarchal sex kitten of our coven." Brendon snickered, hi fiving Ryan after.

William literally had to keep a tight hold on her so she wouldn't turn around strangle the poor vampire, who clearly had put one too many toes out of line.

"Brendon. One more word, and I'm going to put all of this creepypasta talk into your head so it scares you so bad you'll never speak again." her voice was quiet, but he immediately listened, knowing she was starting to take on some of William's mannerisms - it wasn't what was said that you needed to worry about, it was how it had been said.

"So...back to the creepypasta stuff...safety's an issue, of course, it always is. But how do we want to go about this - do we want to start looking into certain ones? Which do we think are the most prominent to show up? And...are they specific areas for certain ones?" Chuck said, trying to keeping the conversation from sidetracking even more.

"Well, from what you guys are saying about the man in the suit with the children - that's the Slender Man. Some of the more gruesome deaths like the disemboweling and such that you're talking about could be The Rake, whose hands are clawlike and very able to tear out throats. I'd say we start there and learn as much as we can about those two first." Amelia reasoned, seeing everyone nod.

"But there's another problem. While we're working all this stuff out, we're all clearly not going to be able to be in the exact same place for long periods of time. We can't all stay here, judging by how many fights have already almost happened." Mikey pointed out.

"I know you're not going to like this idea much, Amelia. But don't you think it's best we try to see what's going on in the cities this stuff is actually happening in? Like, we'll spend a week in Chicago, a week in Jersey, then a week in Montreal? That way we have a clear idea...like, we'll all just book rooms at a hotel, kinda like the girls did for Spring break."

Everyone seemed to contemplate the idea for a few minutes.

"I like that idea. It'll help us get a first hand idea of what we're facing." Frank said, Bob adding something along the lines of, "As long as we manage to stop trying to fight each other while we're at it," under his breath.

Soon, everyone had expressed an opinion toward the idea, and although Amelia didn't want to admit it had sounded like a good idea, she had to agree with the logic behind it.

"Alright. I'll start looking up hotels in Chicago, but I'm warning you, if we ended up back at the Four Seasons on Rush street, I'm never letting you hear the end of this."


	5. Chapter 5

"I'm never letting you hear the end of this."

Amelia grumbled as she hauled the backpack she was carrying onto her opposite shoulder, AJ laughing as she followed the brunette, Simple Plan and My Chem talking amongst themselves as they all were trying to think of plans of attack.

"Oh come on, it's not like half of us are gonna end up dead this time. Well, not literally, but literally. You know?"

"Oh, and I'm supposed to expect I'm not going to find you in the local starbucks humming The Parting Glass when he shows up and covers your eyes only to whisper a 'Guess who?" into your ear and have you start giggling like a five year old? I know you too well, just give it up already."

"But I'm not staying here with you guys. The Dandies and I are going back to the mansion for the week, and I've really missed it. But like...isn't it gonna be weird for you? I mean...you are the only girl with ten guys staying overnight at a hotel for a week..."

"AJ, don't push it. We've already worked this out, it's two rooms with queen beds. And pull out sofas. As far as what's been figured, I think David and Pierre are taking one bed, Jeff and Chuck are taking the sleeper and Seb's being a gentleman and insisting I have the other bed to myself. Gerard and the rest of of My Chem have the other room."

"You're not really going to let Seb sleep on the floor, are you? Considering you two had practically hooked up at the end of Spring Break and all." AJ pressed, surprised when Amelia stopped mid-step and smirked.

"You're not the only one that's got a devious side. Not like we're going to do anything, but I wouldn't mind falling asleep in his arms."

AJ's eyes widened.

"That's the side of you I never thought I'd see. Wow, you're growing up!" she joked, looking at the room number, then the card Amelia held.

"Hey, I think that's the rooms. I'm gonna go at meet the boys, they're apparently trying to clean up a bit before I get home, although why it wouldn't be pristine in the first place confounds me," she explained, offering a farewell smile as she disappeared down the hall.

"It's so nice to be home….finally." AJ announced as the blonde more or less collapsed against the wall in the stairwell, already used to the feel of the carpet beneath her feet.

"It's probably better that we stay here anyways," Jon agreed, "Seeing as you are obviously more comfortable here."

AJ smiled.

"Yeah, but all this creepypasta stuff has me thinking….you know how most of those stories take place in the really old houses, right? With the hidden rooms and trap doors and dusty attics and-"

Here we go again with the motormouth.

"Adeline, I can assure you – there's nothing of that sort in this house – well, at least, not the creatures you so adamantly speak of. The only thing you may want to check out concerning those monsters of yours is all the mirrors – they always have held an element of superstition in them."

At this, AJ's face blanched.

"Great. We've gotta get this house like the Skeleton Key. Now."

"Wh-" Ryan started.

"Don't ask, just do it!" Normally no-one wouldn't have flinched at AJ snapping, but the fear was palpable in her voice. Whatever she needed to do, she needed to do it fast.

"It's just a mirror. I just need to throw this sheet over it, and it'll be fine. It's just a piece of glass. A looking glass; but still." She half laughed to herself, remembering the old Lewis Carroll tale.

The mirror in the master bathroom had never bothered her until now – she hadn't thought of the superstition involved with them until all this creepypasta stuff hit. And now, here she sat, transfixed in front of it, lost in her reflection. That was maybe the only thing she missed about being human – the constant feeling of imperfections that had seemed to wilt away the moment William's venom entered her blood. That, at the fact that the small line from the Eagles song had been right.

'Ain't it funny how your new life didn't change things – you're still the same old girl you used to be.'

But now, seconds had passed, and with an un-nerving feeling, she realized she hadn't moved. And yet her reflection had seemed to. Getting up and putting both hands on the vanity to steady herself, she stared straight into her reflection's eyes, not expecting anything else to happen.

Then, if only she hadn't been watching so intently, she would have missed it. For a moment, it seemed her reflection smiled at her – but without fangs! Determined that it had just been a trick of the eye, AJ shook it off and reached a hand up to set it on the smooth glass.

Only that her reflection didn't follow her movement, and this time it was definitely scowling at her.

"Oh fuck. Fuck. Don't tell me NOW is when that damn video decides to happen in real life. This is just-" and before she had a chance to finish her thought, the glass had broken from the inside out and she was on the ground.

The only thing she could do was scream.

The moment he heard AJ scream, William took off for the stairs, taking them three at a time, being at the door to the bedroom in another two seconds.

"Adeline! Doll, what'd you-" The door wouldn't budge. It was stuck tight, and he knew she hadn't locked it.

"BABY!" she was terrified – something had happened in there.

"Hang on!" Two breaths, one millisecond thought – break the door down. He threw himself into the door, turning the handle as he went, not expecting it to have given in, so the momentum put him on the floor for the follow through.

When he finally got to his feet, he saw Adeline was sitting on the bed, knees curled up to her stomach, eyes wide and full of fear.

"Hey….hey…whatever happened, it's gone…alright? Hey, look at me…you're okay." He soothed, running a hand through her curls, noticing the sudden all-too intoxicating scent that had filled the room.

Looking her over, he sighed. Her arm was torn up pretty badly, filled with glass shards, cuts dripping blood here and there.

"How'd you do that, dear?" gently he picked her up, wanting to carry her into the bathroom, intent on cleaning her wound.

"Don't!" Adeline obviously had some reluctance to go back into said room, because her grip on her shoulder tighter and she buried her head further into the crook of his neck.

"Oh come on, we've got to get you cleaned up! It won't hurt anymore than normal; you shouldn't fe- Bloody hell!"

He gasped at what he saw, and Adeline had giggled at the accent that had suddenly slipped back into his voice.

The floor of the bathroom and the sink were filled with shards of glass from the now broken mirror above it, and with horror, he realized exactly what the scene looked like.

Adeline giggled again, this time sounding like herself, "See? I knew we weren't nuts for liking that video so much. All the days I hoped that would happen when I was brushing my teeth…ugh, not anymore!"

"Yeah, and here's hoping we won't have to chase it down upstate at some show." He deadpanned, the Big Mess video replaying in his head.

"But come on. Let's get you cleaned up, and then we'll go tell the others….looks like we've got a doppelganger on the loose."

As soon as William had gotten all the glass out of AJ's arm and bandaged it, she seemed to brighten up slightly. She smiled as she walked back into the bedroom, flopping down onto the bed with a confused sigh.

"Why would my reflection do that in the first place? I just don't get it...I mean, like, why now?"

"It does make sense that it would happen now since mirrors are a common element in those stories you've been talking about, but it wouldn't be a far-fetched idea that your reflection harbors some resentment towards your current self."

"Why would that be though? I still don't-" she continued, sitting up cross legged as William sat down next to her.

"Doll, let me see your arm. The other one," he corrected as she automatically help up the bandaged one. The minute she offered it to him, he gently lifted her wrist to his lips and bit, not surprised when she yelped and yanked it free.

"Hey, what was that for?"

"You wanted my point. I'm only trying to say I think the reason your reflection has that resentment is because you're immortal. And she's not."

AJ giggled.

"Wait, you're referring to me as two separate people now? When did this change?"

William smiled, leaning in and kissing her, moving to lay her down on the bed, he knowing she was missing these moments as much as he was.

"Since I took your mortality."

She smiled shyly, blinking hazel eyes, pupils already dilated with lust as her hands wound into his hair and she tugged him closer, already feeling adrenaline start to run.

"Hm, and that's not all, dear."

He immediately shot her a look to mean he knew what she meant by that, and it was only accented as his hand found her hip and he'd grabbed her tight, their lips meeting not a second later.


	6. Chapter 6

Meanwhile, Amelia and Simple Plan were taking advantage of the free wifi at the hotel to look up the creepypasta myths on their laptops. Jeff, Pierre and David were scrolling through tumblr looking for things relating to Slender Man, and Seb, Chuck and Amelia were browsing through the creepypasta wiki for info on The Rake.

"Neither of these guys seem particularly scary when you think about it." Pierre brought up, clicking onto the third page of images.

"I mean, what's so scary about a man in a black suit anyways?" David added.

"Asides from the fact he has no face? Or that he abducts children? Or that he has tentacle like appendages on his back?" Amelia rattled off, reaching for her phone as it buzzed on the nightstand.

"Huh. It's AJ. Wonder what she wants?"

"Don't you think she'd be with her brood? Because, you know, they're home now. Knowing her, she's trying to get Beckett alone."

Amelia could only laugh, it seems everyone knew the way AJ was. But it was only a text.

Meet me at Starbucks? I can't sleep and I kinda just want to remember spring break. I'll buy. It'd be just us, the boys are…busy.

Thinking it over, she realized it probably was better to just go talk to AJ over what they'd found out, and maybe she could give her some pointers on the kinds of stuff she and the Dandies should be looking for.

Yeah. Meet you in ten? At the one on the corner of Michigan, right? By American Girl?

A few minutes passed, You got it! Santi. XD

After Amelia told the others where she was going, she reminded them she had her phone on her and set off. Finding the starbucks wasn't too hard, and she knew it was the right one when she saw the blonde nursing her coffee in the window.

"AJ…coffee? This late? It's almost 9. You're gonna be up all night!"

"Rae, I'm a vampire…I don't sleep anyways. Remember all those cross country meets that nearly killed me?"

Amelia laughed, "Once or twice, you only had three cans of mountain dew and a crunch bar. How you didn't pass out from the crash I'll never know."

"I'm fine now. I'm really worried about the boys though…it just….it's Carden. With how he kept watching you and all…I get that too, but….I know he likes me, I know he wishes he'd turned me instead of William. And maybe I'll let him if it'll keep him away from you."

Amelia's head spun. Wasn't AJ already a vampire? Then why was she talking about being turned?

"AJ? I'm confused….aren't you…wait. I don't."

"Look." AJ smiled, and Amelia had to do a double take. No fangs.

No fangs meant she was human.

"Wait…what the hell? AJ, where'd your fangs go?!"

"I never had them, Amelia. This is the mortal me. I hate the other one, she's so pretentious and wrapped around his finger….so damn eager to do his every bidding. I like this me better. I'm so glad that mirror freed me. Oh, what's that look for? You don't need to be afraid, it's not like I'm going to hurt you." The AJ but not AJ explained as Amelia's eyes widened.

This wan't AJ. Well, it was, but – mirrors? Freeing her? What the – Oh. OH.

"My life's turned into a creepypasta. Lovely. Just fucking lovely. Yeah…I'm gonna go now. I'm a little freaked out. I'll talk to the real you later!" Amelia called after she'd gotten up and began to run out the door, intent on getting back to the hotel as soon as possible.

The minute she pounded on the door to her and Simple Plan's room, Seb opened it and she threw herself into his arms, clinging tight to make sure everything wasn't another dream.

"Amelia, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"Maybe I have! I just…ugh. Here we go again! That wasn't AJ, although how it was texting from her phone, I'll never know…"

"What's it?" Jeff asked.

"So when I said AJ was texting me, and I went to meet her for coffee, right? It wasn't AJ. This one was…human. She didn't have fangs, and she sounded like her old self, the self I knew back before high school started and everything. I'm just really confused."

"She didn't have fangs? How is that even possible, she's a vampire now, you can't just take those out."

Chuck added.

Amelia almost laughed, grabbing her pajamas and heading into the bathroom to change, talking through the door.

"Had that been the case I would've knocked 'em out the minute Beckett give them to her. But I'm so tired. I can't think straight. I think I just want to go to bed honestly. We can talk to the others tomorrow and figure this out."

"Why don't we talk to them now? We could have Gerard and Mikey look up stuff on the thing with AJ while we get some sleep, they're vampires, this'd work fine." Pierre suggested.

"Yeah, alright. One of you want to text him? Or – hang on, I'll be right back." She said as she opened the door.

Amelia was going to say goodnight anyways, so she could tell them what had happened.

Across the hall, Ray was trying to stop Frank from accessing the built in GameCube system that was with the TV while Bob was paging through the local newspaper from the day, trying to find more odd deaths.

Mikey was stretched out on the far bed, just thankful to not be in the same room as the Dandies.

Gerard was drawing in an old notebook when there was a knock at the door, which he answered.

"Hey Amelia. You alright? You look kinda pale." He stated, and Amelia almost smiled at the irony, as Gerard was pale even by vampire standards.

"I'm alright I guess. Simple Plan and I are gonna wind down for the night and go to bed, but since you and Frank are vampires, I figured you'd be up later….and I kinda need you to look something up for me."

"Please don't let it be anything fluffy or romantic," Frank commented from the floor in front of the TV, Ray had given up trying to keep the short vampire from the game system.

"It's not- HEY! But anyways…so I think AJ's got a doppelganger now, how it happened I have no clue. I met her for coffee, but it wasn't really her….she had no fangs."

"So you want us to look into doppelgangers and how to destroy them?"

"More like just how to get them back to the original person. If we think dealing with regular AJ is bad, having her human side running around creating trouble isn't going to make things easier. But yeah….that. And uh, I came to say good night, too."

Mikey smiled, getting up, pulling her into a hug. Thinking back to Spring break, he was surprised at how much things had changed – it had gone from not even wanting her involved in the conference to wanting to rip a certain somebody apart to protect her.

After the others had also said goodnight, Amelia told them she'd see them in the morning and then went back to her room, surprised to find almost everyone else was quiet and maybe asleep.

Only Seb was up, sitting up against the headboard on the side of the bed closest to the alarm clock. He seemed to be contemplating something.

Amelia internally rolled her eyes. I swear, if he heard what I told AJ earlier…

"The guys all figured its best we let you sleep. It must not be real fun for you, getting thrown into all this stuff again."

She nodded, "Got that right. And uh, I know you're insisting I take this bed, but I really wouldn't mind if you lay with me. I've missed you."

At this, Seb smiled and got up, pulling down the covers, and motioned for Amelia to lie down. As soon as she did and got somewhat comfortable, she felt him lay down beside her. A few moments passed before she turned around to look at him, realizing he was now shirtless.

"I really did miss you, you know. All of you guys. I just keep thinking about Spring break, at the base when you-" and almost as she'd been expecting it, he put a finger against her lips. Green eyes looked into pale blue for about three seconds before their lips had touched.

She smiled the moment he pulled away, "Ok, so I took some tips from AJ on that one. But still…this is actually nice, considering I'm not terrified my friends and I aren't all gonna divide and get killed between a few groups of vampires. There's only one I'm worried about." She added, gaze drifting, turning over on her side.

"Carden. I don't like the way he looks at you, at all. Mikey and I have already agreed, he even tries anything we're gonna rip him apart."

Amelia shuddered at the tension that had worked its way into his voice.

"Thank you…I just…it's weird, AJ's right. At the end of break, everyone was hooking up…and I mean, we kinda did but I just-" she gasped slightly but smiled as he'd put an arm around her, holding her closer to him, dare she believe she'd felt him kiss her neck?

"I know what you're saying. And it looks like she's rubbing off on you. But for now, you need sleep. If this whole thing is like everything else you two have managed to get yourselves into, we're in for a long week." He explained, laughing tiredly.

She grinned, flipping back over.

"Yeah, unfortunately. But that's okay. Because I think I'm gonna not mind the dark anymore, not as long as we're like this." And with that, she leaned up and kissed him.

Back at the Dandies, everyone else had also called it a night. Except for William and AJ, and the two lay awake listening to the storm that had rolled in, adrenaline finally starting to fade.

AJ's eyes widened at almost every flash of lightning, which only made William smile as one of his hands ran through her curls.

"You're like a child sometimes, with the way you're constantly amazed by the simplest things, Adeline. It's really quite sweet."

She giggled, "What's gonna be really sweet is Amelia's reaction tomorrow...if this bruises up like I think it will, oh, I'm gonna get an I told you so, just you wait."

She sat up slightly against him, resting a hand on his chest, just wishing to high hell she had Marley's ability.

"You can cover that with makeup if you need to..." he added, resting his own over hers before he too leaned up, only to capture her lips again for a few seconds.

"Now come on, lay down, doll. I don't want you tired in the morning."

"Tired? Hm. You're funny, minster. What makes you think a short little dumb blonde like me is going to listen to you?" she teased, mouth opening in an 'O' in awe at the crack of thunder that had rattled the mansion.

William, knowing exactly where she intended to take things, only sighed, remembering how she'd melt at the slightest hint of an accent in his voice.

And truth be told, for the three hundred year old vampire, it wasn't hard to slip back into the almost-twenty-two year old mortal that had once ran down London's streets that he'd once been. So, as he looked her over, he smiled.

"Well, I could always make you. If there's one thing these mental abilities help with, it's attracting poor young women such as yourself and trapping them in these situations. Now go on, lie down before I make you."

She giggled, laying back down beside him and turning on her side, allowing him to slip an arm around her, her own hands clutching the wolf pelt protectively.

"Alright fine...but...can you sing to me? I know you did last night, but since you're all english-gentlemanly now let's hear something from that era of your life," she asked softly, burying her face in the pelt.

William had to think for a moment - mortal memories always were harder to recall, but for a few seconds, verses of an old lullaby ran through his head.

"Alright, but you have to promise me you'll sleep after this, darling."

"I promise!" she chirped right away, abandoning the pelt to turn over and snuggle against his chest as he began to sing.

"One evening in the spring Heard a long gone song  
From days gone by Blown in on the great north wind  
Though there is no lonesome corncrake's cry Of sorrow and delight  
You can hear the cars And the shouts from bars And the laughter and the fights

May the ghosts that howled Round the house at night Never keep you from your sleep  
May they all sleep tight Down in hell tonight Or wherever they may be  
As I walked on with a heavy heart Then a stone danced on the tide

And the song went on Though the lights were gone And the north wind gently sighed  
And an evening breeze coming from the east That kissed the riverside  
So I pray now child that you sleep tonight When you hear this lullaby

May the wind that blows from haunted graves Never bring you misery  
May the angels bright Watch you tonight And keep you while you sleep…"

And with that, AJ slipped off to sleep, William's arms around her, the elder vampire wondering exactly how much danger he'd put her in this time.


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning, Amelia and Gerard headed over to the Dandies mansion, if only to figure out a plan of attack for later that day. Simple Plan had decided to go to the downtown library to check local records into the children's disappearances.

The minute the two walked into the foyer after Sisky had buzzed them in; Amelia looked around, realizing it was far too quiet that early in the morning.

"Watch, it'll be dead quiet for another minute, and then we're surrounded," she joked, raising an eyebrow at the sight of AJ walking into the kitchen, some sort of bandages on her arm.

"AJ, what the hell happened to your arm? Don't tell me it's like Spring break again with you and letting William get a little touchy with you when you drink…"

"It's not. Promise. I just fell and tripped myself, no problem."

"She's lying." William added after, walking down after her, looking slightly worried about something. Amelia practically did a double take.

"Yeah? You're NOT the one who's reflection just attacked you last night and ran out!" she yelled, and Amelia cringed at the tone, and then realization hit.

"Wait, you don't mean like-" and then she tilted her head toward William, who reluctantly nodded, "Yes. Exactly like that."

"Oh lovely. This whole thing just keeps getting better, don't it?"

"You'd be surprisingly better off if you had a Dandie to keep you from harm," AJ singsonged, drinking down another blood bag, William walking over to grab it, looping an arm around her waist at the same time.

"She's got a point, but with the way your boys are so overprotective of you anyways I don't think one of ours would help much."

"Did you seriously just-" Amelia stated, somewhat shocked that William had just used a plural in reference to himself and AJ, and in retrospect, she internally face palmed, had done the first step most high school couples take – change the nouns over to plural to emphasize 'togetherness'.

"Hm? Oh, that bothers you, doesn't it?" William asked after having seen the expression on Amelia's face.

"Rae, it's nothing to worry about. You pretty much knew we'd get to this point sooner or later. You're lucky I'm a vampire, otherwise Spring Break would've meant I might be p-"

"AJ. Stop. I really don't want to hear it. There's a reason everyone at that hotel thought you were a prostitute that entire week. You didn't shut up about things like that."

"Did too! I wasn't around you guys half the time!"

"And that's probably the only time you shut up about it, right?" Amelia shot back, half laughing.

Sisky had walked into the kitchen, grabbed a blood bag of his own and had decided to answer the question.

"Not exactly. You should've heard these two – there's a reason Brendon and the rest of Panic! refer to her as a-" he coughed, obviously trying to hide what he was going to say, "Sex kitten," and then coughed again.

AJ, clearly having heard this, swung her foot and lightly kicked the back of his head from where she perched on the countertop.

"Ow…hey, that's cool. You're like half my size. I should be able to crash you for that." Sisky complained, although he was smiling.

"Oh what, and you're shadow's going to fight me? Like I couldn't just manipulate it into doing something else." She shot back, squeaking when William ushered her off the countertop with his free hand.

"Come on, you're a lady now, you know better."

"Oh and Amelia….you look perkier today…like, you just seem happier. Marley would probably say your aura's calmer, although it's-" AJ started, which Jon finished, "Lusty."

AJ raised an eyebrow, knowing she'd been told the same thing whenever she walked down in the early mornings, having left William to sleep after a rather….well, eventful night.

"RAE! SERIOUSLY?!"

The brunette only gave her a look, "I'll tell you later, jesus, calm down. Back to why you're arm's bandaged."

"...Well, to spell that out, Big Mess video. Reflection quite literally came to life."

"Yeah, I found that out the hard way. Did you have your phone last night?"

"Ye-no. Not with me. I left it downstairs, on the table. Should've had it upstairs with me, but...why?"

"I got a few texts from you saying you wanted to meet at Starbucks."

AJ stole a glance at William, she knew he didn't like her having a lot of caffeine, and even if this wasn't really her, she'd hear about it later.

"But I was with-"

"I figured that out when you had no fangs. Well, your reflection anyways. As soon as I realized it wasn't you I high-tailed it back to the hotel. I don't know where the other you went. But back at the hotel, the guys and I were doing some background digging, and turns out there's a forest just outside the edge of town...and there's been a few local disappearances over the weeks, and strange sightings of an animal, well, creature of some sort, and from the kind of stuff we're looking at, sounds like it could be there Rake. We were thinking of checking it out later. You in?"

"Forest? Isn't that-" AJ said, looking at William, who automatically finished her sentence, "It's not a forest. Robinson Woods. And yes, the animal sightings have been growing in number recently...But that is a rather good plan. Speaking of which, where's the rest of your men, Gerard?"

Gerard, who had been somewhat zoning out, gaze on the bandages on AJ's arm, came back to reality.

"Frank found the video game AJ was talking about and downloaded it to his phone, so he's back at the hotel with the rest of the guys, taking turns. Bob suggested we look into documented ghost sightings in the area in case these creepypasta ritual myths manage to affect the ghost population in addition to the creatures we've already discussed," he explained, feeling Amelia grab his arm as he saw Carden walk into the kitchen.

"Oh relax. You might be mortal, but is your kind really that stupid to tense the second I walk in?" he snapped at Amelia, who only glared in response.

"Mike! Get! Go on! Adam, you too. I'll speak with you both later." AJ reprimanded.

"I'm so sorry, normally he's-" another glare, "Not like this. I mean, he is, but-"

"We get it. Amelia, I think that's our cue to go." Gerard added as he turned, eager to get out of the mansion.

"Yeah...AJ, I'll text you later? About us all checking out the woods?"

"Sounds good. We've got some things to deal with here, anyways. We'll see you later."


	8. Chapter 8

Once Amelia and Gerard had left, AJ and Sisky walked back upstairs, she needed to change and he just wanted to wait for her, knowing she wanted to talk to him. As Mike walked out of the kitchen, William called to him.

"Mike? A word with you, please."

He nodded and followed William into the foyer.

"It seems to me that you've been letting your gaze linger a little too long on the little Waterbender. I would advise you to stop that immediately," William said as he turned around to look at Mike.

Mike scoffed. "Please, you really think I'm interested in her? I have no idea what you're talking about."

In the blink of an eye, William appeared in front of Mike and pulled him close.

"Don't. Lie. To. Me. I've seen the way that you look at her and whatever is going through your head, it isn't good. I admit, it's impressive that you've managed to create illusory thoughts so that I cannot probe your mind to find out what you're really up to. That being said, we already have a fragile alliance with Gerard and the others. I don't need you to be the reason that that bond disintegrates."

"Also," William said as he let go of Mike, "You of all people should remember what happened the last time that you hurt someone that Mikey Way cared about. Don't let history repeat itself. I don't need to lose anyone else to his rage."

With that, William walked away from Mike, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

While it was true that he could indeed create fake thoughts so that even William couldn't read his mind, there was nothing special about his interest in Amelia. He had no physical attraction to her whatsoever. In reality, he really just enjoyed messing with her. What made it even better was seeing Mikey and Sebastien flip out. That's really all he wanted to do: mess with Mikey and Sebastien because he was bored. He retired to his room to try and figure out how he could accomplish his goal.

Once AJ had changed, she found Sisky sitting in the hallway outside her and William's room.

"You okay? You look like a lost puppy dog or something."

"You wanted to talk to me…I'm not in trouble, I hope." The youngest asked, and for a second it gave AJ a flashback of herself whenever one of her parents had called to her.

"No, you're not. I'm just a little concerned about tonight – If we do all decide to go check out Robinson Woods…I hate to say this, but Mikey Way is right. Sooner or later we're going to be at each other's throats, and I'll willing to bet Mike is going to be the first one of us to break the ranks."

"So-"

"I'm just asking if you'd keep an eye on him tonight. I realize he's about twice your age, but you're the more mature vampire in this case. That's all."

"Oh, okay. Yeah, I can do that, no problem, Adeline. But why me?"

"Thanks. Oh…it's just you're the youngest of those William sired, and I think it's time you've had more responsibilities, I guess. Now come on, go find Butcher – I'll play football with you guys for a bit if you want."

Sisky raised an eyebrow, "You do realize if William catches you rough-housing with us he's-"

"He can react all he wants, it's not going to stop me. In lion prides, the king sleeps most of the day, while the lioness does all the hunting, as well as looking after the cubs. This is no different. So, I need a little exercise anyways. You two up for it?" she grinned.

Sisky nodded, "I'm pretty sure we can take you."

By the time Amelia had talked to Simple Plan and the rest of MCR, everyone agreed that the Woods seemed like a logical place to start.

"Did you talk to AJ at all about that…thing?" Pierre wondered.

"Yeah…she says it's straight out of a music video. Her reflection pretty much came to life. Her arm's pretty banged up, but for her I doubt that's anything new with the amount of bruises and love bites I saw on her this morning," she recalled in disgust.

"But they've all agreed to meet us?" Frank added, setting down his phone for the first time that morning.

"Yeah, we're meeting at Resurrection Boulevard at 10, when it's nice and dark. At least that's what AJ texted me."

"Resurrection Boulevard? Isn't that where she got hit by-" Ray started, only to have Amelia cut him off,

"Wait. Who?"

Bob sighed, having heard that particular ghost story one too many times, as he'd heard it since he was a young boy growing up in the rapidly growing city they were now in.

"Resurrection Mary. She's a local ghost. A hitchhiking one, if you know the type. She died sometime in the 1920's when she got hit by a car after walking home from a speakeasy along the boulevard they named for her. I wonder, with all of what's happening lately – who knows – we might run into her."

"Oh. But yeah, I guess that's the plan. Long night. Again. Yay."

"Doll, come on, you mustn't take nearly an hour to get ready everytime we want to go somewhere…I realize it's not that I'd you want to rush and look all in disarray but-" William complained as he waited for

AJ outside the bathroom door, who was getting ready to leave for the woods with him and the boys.

"Hey, I'm just-" she started, setting down the mascara wand to open the door, glaring at him, blue contacts making her look even paler. "Finishing now. Settle down, will you? You're lucky I'm not trying to keep you here."

He did a momentary double take.

"Adeline – your eyes. What the-"

"Contacts. I've read up on Resurrection Mary, she's this ghost that's around here, particularly by the road along the woods…I'm gonna try and scare the boys. That's what all this is for…I told you I kept this stuff…well; it was still here, really." She explained as she motioned to the dress she now wore.

It was powder blue and went to the middle of her calves, with a layered skirt alternating between fabric and tulle. The upper part of it had a white lace inset, with black cord corset detailing. William almost wanted to claw right through that, knowing how easy it was to dismantle the soft lace and fray the cording.

She grinned the moment she saw him lick his lips, knowing where his thoughts had gone. She shook her head, walking forward slightly to place a finger against his lips, realizing exactly the effect she was having on him.

"Ah ah. If we manage to get away from the others tonight, those woods might not be quiet for long."

He rolled his eyes, laughing softly.

"Oh, I've got ways to keep you quiet, you'll see."

When everybody finally reached Resurrection Boulevard, AJ lagged behind a little bit, wanting to jump out

of nowhere. She'd gotten the hang of teleportation after about an hour's practice, and now it was time to put it to use.

"Hey William, where's AJ?" Amelia asked, looking around, knowing the curly haired blonde should have had no trouble being seen.

He shrugged, trying to hide the smile as he watched Panic! talking to some of the boys in Simple Plan.

"Brendon, you may want to turn around." He called, and as if on cue, AJ appeared right behind the vampire, causing the singer to give a rather girly scream in fright. AJ and the rest of Panic could only laugh, and she smiled as David clapped her on the back.

"Told you not to test me. It's only fair."

Brendon pouted.

"Oh come on, you can't say I didn't warn you!"

"But you didn't." he whined. She shook her head, "Oh yes I did. Two days ago. Now, who's ready to hunt for creepy shit?!" And then took off.

"Great. It's the old AJ back. This is going to be a llloooonnnggg night." Amelia sighed, picking up her pace to keep up with Seb, who in turn had tried to keep David from running ahead with AJ.

Before anyone realized how far they'd actually walked, it was nothing but trees and eerie noises.


	9. Chapter 9

"Do you guys hear that?" Mikey asked, already sensing things weren't going to go well.

"What, your teething chattering because you're scar- OW!" Mike had started before Sisky had elbowed him in the ribs.

"What was that for?"

"Adeline told me to keep you in line. I'm only doing what she told me."

"Sure you ar-" he went to say, but was cut off as her voice sounded in his head.

'Mike, I'd suggest you act like the Dandie you really are, not the lower class vampires this city is known for. I don't want another scene tonight, do you hear me?'

How his eyes automatically found her, he didn't know. But he glared anyways ,'Loud and clear, Mother-May-I.' and she only shook her head as if to tell him to knock it off.

Fine, she wanted it that way, so be it. He was completely fine in the darkness of the woods, in fact, if he wanted to he could probably work some magic and get to the waterbender again. Or rather, bring her to him.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" AJ yelled, pointing off towards something in the distance, although everyone had heard branches snapping in rapid succession.

"Alright, so now it's starting. Easiest way to deal with this?" Chuck wondered.

Sisky looked at Butcher, and then both looked at William.

"Please don't say split up."

"Split up, gang!" AJ shouted, point blank taking off again, giggling like a little girl at realizing the Scooby-Doo reference she'd made.

With everyone else running ahead to keep up with AJ, no one noticed Mike Carden as he sunk back into the shadows. Now would be the perfect time to put his plan into action. He watched as Amelia lingered behind everyone. He slowly began to warp reality and delighted when she veered off course and walked further into the dark forest, completely alone. He followed, excited to see his plan come to fruition.

The minute that AJ had yelled for everyone to split up, Amelia sighed internally. Hadn't she seen enough horror movies? Splitting up was never a good idea! Begrudgingly, Amelia followed the rest of the group into the dark forest, arms held at her sides in a classic Waterbending pose. All of her senses were on overdrive and her heart was racing. She was drawn out of her thoughts when she heard Seb call to her.

"Hey Amelia, come on! Let's go explore. Don't worry, I'll keep you safe," he said, putting his arm around her.

"Okay, Seb. Whatever you say," she said, letting him lead her away.

Soon, it was too dark for Amelia to see, but she felt safe knowing that Seb was with her.

"Hey Seb, is something wrong? You've been awfully quiet," she said, turning to look at him.

That's when a sickening realization hit her. Seb was gone!

"Seb, where are you?" Amelia asked

When there was no response, she asked again, but louder.

"Seb, where are you?"

A deafening, unnatural silence was her only response. Amelia really began to panic.

"Oh my god, I have no idea where I am, I'm in the middle of the forest at night, I can't see anything. Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," she muttered to herself, her voice rising in pitch.

She spun in a circle, trying to find some kind of path, but all she could make out were the dark shapes of trees. Her hands were shaking so badly and her heartbeat thudding in her ears was the only sound she could hear.

All of the sudden, she heard a twig snap. Automatically, she lashed out with Waterbending, but she hit nothing. Then, more twigs started snapping and Amelia struck out blindly with Waterbending.

When the forest was silent again, she turned and prepared to run. Before she could get anywhere, she heard someone say "Boo!" quietly in her ear. She screamed and heard someone laugh. It was a familiar laugh.

"Carden?" she asked, not wanting to hear the answer

"You know it," he replied, and Amelia could practically hear the smirk in his voice.

"OH MY GOD, YOU ASSHOLE! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?! YOU NEARLY GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK!" she yelled, trying to strike him with water.

"I know. I could hear your heart racing from a mile away. And I did it for no particular reason. I really just wanted to get you alone."

At his last statement, Amelia stopped.

"What?"

She felt herself being grabbed and thrown up against a tree. Carden loomed over her, smiling a sick smile. His body was pressed flush against hers. Amelia felt sick.

"You heard me. I just wanted to get you alone. No one to interrupt."

"What are you talking about?" Amelia asked, a knot forming in her stomach.

"I think you know exactly what I mean," he replied, leaning in closer.

"Too bad I'm not interested," Amelia declared and she raised her arms to try and bat him away with Waterbending.

In one fluid motion, Carden had grabbed her wrists with one hand and pinned them above her head.

"I don't think so. It's not fun when you try and fight back," he said, his eyes roaming up and down her body.

Amelia desperately struggled to free herself from his grasp.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked, trying not to cry.

"I know there's something going on between you and Sebastien, and I don't like it. I would be so much better for you," he said, his lips ghosting over her ear, making her shiver. He ran his hand up and down her body in long, smooth strokes.

"Please, just let me go," she begged, tears running down her face.

He put a finger to her lips and shushed her. "Don't worry, this will be all over soon."

He gently turned her neck to the side and bit down on the exposed flesh. Amelia gasped in pain.

He delighted in the taste of the blood, sweet and innocent.

"Someone please, find me!" Amelia thought.


	10. Chapter 10

Everyone walked farther into the forest. Mikey and Sebastien walked side by side, scanning the forest for any sign of life. After walking for a few minutes, Mikey turned to Sebastien.

"Hey Seb, where's Amelia? She's been awfully quiet this whole time," he remarked.

Seb stopped where he was and turned around. Doing a quick headcount as everyone walked past, he noted that two people were missing.

"I don't see her. Come to think of it, I don't see Carden either. You don't think…?" he asked, turning to look at Mikey.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Mikey started stalking away. He called over his shoulder to Gerard that he and Sebastien would be right back.

"I swear to god, I'm going to eviscerate that bastard," Mikey said as Sebastien walked beside him. As they were walking, they heard the sound of a girl scream. They both looked at each other and then ran in the direction of the scream.

Soon enough, they came upon a clearing. On the far side of the clearing, they could see two figures. One was held up against a tree and the other had their back to them. They could smell fresh blood, and they saw the figure with its back to them running a hand up and down the body of the other person. Immediately, they both knew what had happened.

With a growl, Sebastien leapt towards the pair, only hoping that he would be the first one to get his hands on Mike Carden.

After a few moments, Mike removed his fangs from Amelia's neck and licked the excess blood from the wounds. Before he could say anything though, something came barrelling into him from the side.

"You goddamned motherfucking bastard," growled a voice from above him.

"Who, me?" Mike asked, a cheeky grin plastered on his bloody face

The grin was wiped from his face as he felt a pair of claws rake across his chest. He was picked up and slammed into a tree.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing!?" asked a very irate Mikey Way

"I don't know what you're talking about," he replied.

"I fucking told you not to touch her and you go and pull this shit! I can't fucking believe you!" Mikey growled, slamming Mike into the ground. Before Mike could say or do anything, Sebastien kicked him in the head.

Mike was temporarily blinded by pain and couldn't do much as he felt claws and teeth tear into him. Eventually, he was able to stagger to his feet and tried to hold his own against the two enraged werewolves.

Meanwhile, Amelia was having her own problems. She was really dizzy from blood loss. Her heart was racing in her chest and it was really difficult to keep standing. She tried to move away from the tree. She had only taken a few steps before she noticed that someone was following her. She turned around to see who it was and was surprised to see David, Sisky, and Butcher standing there.

"H-hey guys. What's up?" she asked, trying not to sway.

They didn't respond. They were just staring at her and it unnerved her. The minute that she made a move, the three of them surrounded her.

"What's wrong? Why are you guys doing this?" she asked

"Oh, no reason. Just a little hungry," Sisky said, licking his lips.

"Yeah, it just smells so good. We can't help ourselves," Butcher added in.

David still said nothing. He was just staring at Amelia and it made her really nervous. She saw something flickering in his eyes that was feral and predatory, nothing like how he usually was.

She didn't know why they were acting this way and she knew that she just needed to get out of there. She backed up slowly and all three vampires followed her. When she tried to break into a run, they ran after her! Thankfully, she didn't have to run very much before AJ showed up.

"Holy fuck." Gerard murmured as he came to a sudden stop, pulling Frank and Jon with him behind a cluster nearby trees.

Brendon had tugged Ryan and Spencer to the other side, eyes wide with realization.

"What? What is it?"

"You know how Amelia had us look up The Rake and Slender Man, right? Well, I'm pretty damn sure one of them is right in these woods…and it's NOT happy." He explained, sighing.

"Oh come on, quit panicking. It's probably just a large animal…local stray or something." Spencer added.

"What makes you say that, that this is the Rake?" Jon asked, looking around, trying to hear whatever the other vampire was picking up.

"Do you not hear the tearing? That thing has claws, and it's about the size of a large dog. More humanoid, though."

"It doesn't sound like tearing though."

"Yeah it- Hey Frank…I know you love me and all, but quit trying to hold my hand. These woods aren't even that scary."

"Gerard, that wasn't me. I'm five feet to your left, and Jon's next to me further away from you," the firebending vampire replied.

"Fuck." Spencer deadpanned.

"That wasn't you, was it Ryan? I swear, my coat just got tugged-" Brendon started.

"Either it's AJ trying to fuck with us or it's that thing Gerard's talking about."

"And please, it's a dark forest. We all know pretty damn well who AJ thinks she's going to be fu-"

Brendon don't you dare. I can hear everything you and the boys are saying.

Ryan turned to the 5'9 singer with a grin, "You just got yourself called out, and she's not even in your line of sight. What are we, a fucking wolf pack from Twilight now?"

George Ryan Ross the third, you will not confuse our coven with that filth – both the series and the implications that we're flea-ridden mutts.

"Oh! Who's the unruly one now?" Brendon teased, pausing momentarily before he and Ryan began to scream in unison.

A foot long bloodied razor like claw had just sliced through the trunk of the tree in front of them.

It had found them.

"Now do we panic?!" Frank had yelled across the group.

Jon nodded, totally forgetting his ability really would've come in handy.

"Panic, I think it's completely rational to panic!"


	11. Chapter 11

Meanwhile, AJ and William had wandered off on their own as well, even though he'd pretty much expected it.

"Really? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but still. You're getting braver, a year ago you would've insisted we stay indoors, you would never have willing gone into a dark forest..."

"That's before I got thrown into a world I didn't know existed. Now shut up and put me on the ground like you know you want to. I know you want to completely dismantle this dress, it's been in your eyes since we left. And I'm not saying I haven't thought about doing something like this before, but there's just something about the idea of making out on the for-"

And before she could finish her thought, William had (gently) pulled her to the ground, having teleported to kneel on the ground behind her before striking. She gasped softly as he straddled her, his fingers undoing the cording, her own hands reaching for his cloak so she could lay it behind her so she wasn't solely on the ground.

"Is it just me or is it that whenever you get intimate your lessons leave you? What happened to being articulate, dear?"

She looked up, shrugging, "D-dunno...guess I just get in my moods and rational thought goes out the window! But it's better this way...I feel...mortal again." Before she'd leaned up and pulled his lips to hers, one hand reaching to grab for his hat to toss it aside, the other struggling to push his suit jacket off his shoulders.

William broke the kiss, laughing as he took off the jacket, only to have her grab his tie seconds after. In response however, he only locked one of his hands around her wrist, nails digging in, knowing she didn't mind the pain as his lips drifted along her neck.

"Of all the things you could say you feel at the moment, you go with that. How is it I haven't made you forget those days yet?"

She smiled, and tried to reply, though her voice was airy, "You could always wipe my memory, love...make me a backstory that you'd see fit..."

"Hm. I just might one of these days, I'd love to have you think you were a turn-of-the-century child, left growing up in the gilded age," he mused, not expecting to feel the shudder pass through her that he had.

"I'd think the prohibition era would be better. I've always loved the music of the twenties..." and absentmindedly some jazz song from said era had gotten caught in her head.

William almost rolled his eyes, she was going to go off on another explanatory rant.

"You get really talkative when we're like this, don't you doll? What happened to a lady should be seen and not heard? I realize with you that's not ever the case,but it's still nice to think the concept did used to exist."

"Mfhm." she whined, he finally deciding to get rid of the excess detailing on the dress, the layers of lace on the bodice falling apart with ease after the cording had been taken care of.

He knew she had on more than one layer under the dress - there were petticoats and stockings, so he could just as easily tear it off her and not fully expose her.

Of course, the minute he goes to do this, she stops him, eyes wide, staring off into the distance at something.

"Maybe splitting up wasn't a good idea. Do you know how many horror movie that happens in? People always die...and with the boys, I'm willing to bet atleast one of them is freaking out right now. And then there's Amelia...you know what I'm talking about. And-"

"Adeline - you really needn't talk so much. You have a habit of changing the atmosphere quickly that way." he replied, realizing her idea was never going to go anywhere unless they were back home.

Abruptly she sat up, motioning off to where she'd been staring, clearly noticing something. William sighed and followed her gaze - and if it weren't for the seemingly glowing eyes there were among the trees some thirty yards off he wouldn't have cared.

"Now do you see why I'm delaying all this? We're not alone. There's something out there...and I think it wants us." She giggled, adding a retrospective, "But not as much as-"

"Ssh. You're right, it's watching us...and it's getting closer. Come on. And to finish your thought, if you really do want me as much as you're saying you do, you would have let me have you."

She followed his lead, getting up to her feet, protesting what he'd just said though she was smiling.

"But I- you can't just -oh you just-" she sighed, "Must you always argue everything I say?"

There was a laugh after she'd said that, but to her shock, she innately knew it wasn't William's. Which meant...

"Adeline?"

"Hm?" already nervous from noticing the eyes, its laugh had rattled her even more.

"When I give you my hand, Don't. Let. Go. Don't look at it, either. I don't want you up for the next however long because its face is burned into your brain. And when I say run-"

"What is this, Doctor Who?" she asked, half jokingly, not expecting the reaction the sentence earned her.

"ADELINE! Not the time!"

"Well you're making it sound like we're being chased by a swarm in a suit or something, vashta nerada because of all the dark shit that's around here, and the creepy-"

"Run."

"Pastas. And I mean, so we're being watched, it's not like- WOAH!" she yelped as he'd grabbed her hand, taking off in any direction other than the thing that was stalking towards them, eyes glowing slightly with a borderline psychotic grin plastered to its face.

'Is everyone else having the thought this was a bad idea?' AJ asked, and naturally, all of Panic! chimed in at once along with Chislett.

'Wait. I heard one of you. Sisky, Butcher, Carden - roll call!'

'You've gotta be fucking kidding me. Hehe, well - Mike's getting himself killed and the twins are chasing the waterbender, guess someone bit her.' Ryan relayed, amusement evident in his tone.

'Wait, where are you?' Brendon added.

'With you, moron. This thing's gonna kill us...wonder how-'

'WAIT! Everybody - okay, so we're all freaking out, right? We need to go back home. Now.'

'How the fuck do we do that?' Spencer wondered.

'Vampires, duh. Teleport.'

'Yeah, but everyone.'

'William, explain. You already know what I'm thinking."

If the Rake hadn't been so intent on destroying the woods in its search for a meal, Frank wouldn't have threatened to burn the entire place to the ground. The minute he had, however, both Ray and Jeff had joined the fray, managing to restrain the rather flame-happy vampire.

"Aw come on! One little fire, just to scare it off!"

"And set everything up in flames? No." Ray argued,arms around the short vampire as he struggled to break from the oni's grip.

"Come on! Nobody's doing anything!"

"Well...Adeline's suggesting we get back home. Where it's safe." Ryan pointed out.

"How the fuck-" Gerard started, only to rethink the situation, remembering there were ways of getting out of this alive.

"She's saying we all teleport...so basically all us vampires all think of the mansion, and like, Bob can apparate or something. Get everyone there."

"He's not a portkey for fuck's sake! He can only take one person at a time!" Frank protested.

Ryan sighed, "Whatever. Just make it happen, we need to regroup."

When William had finally finished explaining AJ's idea to the group, almost everyone agreed - AJ would go find Amelia, William would find Carden, Ryan would take Jeff and Ray, Brendon and Frank would find Pierre and Chuck, Spencer would grab Seb and Mikey, and Jon would make sure Sisky and Butcher were found. Chislett would find David, which let Bob to apparate by himself.

Atleast, it seemed like a good idea at first.

Keeping tabs on who exactly was where, AJ took off to look for Amelia. It was easier said than done, but when the older girl screamed for some reason, AJ was able to break into a clearing between the trees, a tussle in the middle, a figure being chased by three more.

Automatically she felt something bad had happened. Imagine her surprise when she discovered that it was Amelia, being chased by Sisky, Butcher and David!

"WHAT THE HELL DOING YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, trying to be heard of the scuffle that turned out to be Mike, Mikey and Seb.

Immediately Butcher and Sisky stopped and turned to her, grinning. David ran right into Sisky and both of them stumbled slightly, "We smelled blood. Couldn't help it."

"Blood? Like-"

"Mine." Amelia said, out of breath, and in two shaky steps she'd collapsed into AJ, tired of running.

"What even-"

"Carden. Got a little close without you or William watching him and got me good. That's why Mikey and Seb are trying to kill him...and why these three were chasing me." she stated, motioning to her neck, slightly repulsed by the fact that she'd probably have marks for the next week.

"Oh, he's going to hear it. Hate to think what William's gonna do when he finds out..."

"So where's he?"

"Looking for - fuck. We're all going back to the mansion, there's so much shit happening right now that we need to regroup. I'm supposed to teleport with you, Spencer and Jon'll grab the boys, William's looking for Mike, and Chislett'll grab David. At least, that's how - alright, I'll explain later. Time to go!" she announced to a still confused Amelia, grabbing her hand before everything turned black around them.


	12. Chapter 12

If the first thing Amelia hadn't heard was a crash, she would have assumed she was okay. But opening her eyes to find she was in the Dandies' foyer did nothing to calm her. In fact, it made her feel even more sick. She walked over and sat down on the couch. Everyone else began to appear around her.

AJ was still beside her, hand to her mouth, a shocked, "Damnit!" escaping her lips.

"What?"

"Do you not see the two still trying to kill each other?"

And then she noticed - Carden and Mikey were still going at it, even though William and Gerard were trying to pry them apart. Seb had finally noticed Amelia and walked over to where she was.

"Come on, let him go! Knock it off!" Gerard yelled, trying to drag the angry werewolf away from Mike Carden. The two vampires could do little to stop the fight.

Meanwhile, everyone else was having their own problems. The minute that Sisky, Butcher, and David came into the room, they were still drawn to the scent of Amelia's blood. They immediately converged on the couch. Amelia was too tired to even try to defend herself.

Before Sisky and Butcher could do anything, Chislett and Brendon grabbed both of them and forced them out of the room. David was another story.

He was surprisingly calm. He walked over to Amelia and stared at her. Seb came over and stood next to David. He noticed that David was shaking.

"Hey David, you okay?" he asked, putting a hand on David's shoulder

David turned to look at him. "It's taking every ounce of self control that I have to not drain her dry. It smells so good and it's almost painful not to do it."

Seb immediately knew the gravity of the situation. He gave Pierre and Chuck a look, who nodded and walked out of the room.

"Go with Pierre and Chuck. Everything will be fine," he said, shoving David in their direction.

"Amelia...tell me you're okay now, that I can calm down. I still really want to rip his throat out, but I'm a little better behaved than Mikey and I don't want to make William more mad than he already is by destroying the place," Seb explained, almost apologizing to AJ in the middle of it.

She only turned to the lycan are threw her arms around him, trying to hold back tears.

"Come on, we should at least go put some makeup on that so you don't feel like you're like me," AJ tried to lighten the mood with a smile, "Because we all know that although my mark's'd be neater, I'd have a lot more."

Amelia rolled her eyes, but pulled back to look at Seb, who nodded.

"I think she's right. We should get that cleaned so you don't feel like you're bait or something..."

As AJ led Amelia to the bathroom to wash up, she wanted to mention what had happened, but she'd been beaten to it.

"You look like you're shocked about something...did something happen to you, too?"

"Yeah, I just...I saw something, that's all. I'm fine."

"No you're not." Amelia instantly argued, seeing the look on the younger girl's face.

"Yeah, I am. And come on, I should be worried about you. I am, but I should be the one saying you're not okay when you say you are. It really pisses me off that he'd even do that...and knowing how he frenzies with blood doesn't help, you're going to want to get Bob to make a potion that's gonna replenish your blood. You just look paler than normal - almost as pale as me."

Bob, on the other hand, was having a very difficult time. The minute that he had apparated into the room, he saw the chaos and could already feel the tension headache starting. He briefly saw some of the older vampires usher out the younger ones, who were crowding around Amelia. She was sitting on the couch and she looked deathly pale. He could see that her neck was bleeding, which he could easily mend. Before he could do anything though, his attention was drawn to the mess of claws and fangs that was Mike Carden and Mikey Way. Mikey had just taken a chunk out of Carden's arm, spilling blood everywhere.

Gerard looked at Bob, who raised his wand.

"MIKEY!" he yelled, causing the enraged Lycan to look up at him.

"Let him go, Mikey. Let him go," Bob commanded.

When Mikey made no move to release him, Bob pointed his wand at Mikey.

"I don't want to do this, but I have no other choice. Relashio!" Bob yelled.

The force with which he cast the Revulsion Jinx was enough to blast Mikey into the wall. Before he could get up, he flicked his wand again, ensnaring Mikey in thick, black rope. He struggled and fought. Just as he managed to get a clawed hand free, Bob Stunned him and Mikey slumped to the floor, unconscious.

Once that was done, he walked over to try and find Amelia. He found her in one of the bathrooms, with AJ. She was attempting to clean Amelia's wounds.

"Here, you'd better let me handle this," he said to AJ. He waved his wand and a small bottle filled with a red potion came zooming into the room. He caught it and handed it to Amelia.

"Drink that. It'll help restore the blood you've lost," he explained as he moved the hair from her neck. He muttered a healing spell that got rid of the dried blood and stitched the skin back together. Once Amelia had finished the potion, he told AJ to escort her to her room and let her rest for a while.

Bob went back downstairs to find it a lot calmer. The only problem that remained was Carden. Bob could have cared less about what happened to him. As he turned to walk back out of the room, William called to him.

"Oh Robert, could you come take a look at Mike? I was hoping that you and the Waterbender could heal him."

Bob walked over to where William and Chuck were standing. He pointed his wand directly at William's heart.

"One, call me Robert again, and I will fucking end you. Two, his name is Chuck. Show him some respect and call him by his name. And three, even though I could personally care less as to whether that bastard lives or expires, I will put my biases aside and treat him because that's what I'm supposed to do as a healer."

Bob knelt down next to Carden, who was a bloody mess. After doing a quick assessment, he determined the main problems. He first cleaned the blood from the wounds and then had Chuck use Waterbending to close up the wounds. That was how they worked. Bob cleaned the wounds, Chuck closed them. Some of the wounds were too deep to be healed by Waterbending, so occasionally, Bob had to step in with an additional healing spell. The whole process took about a half hour.

"Wow, Mikey sure did a number on him," Chuck remarked as he healed a bruise on the side of Mike's face.

Bob nodded. "Yeah, that's why you never want to piss him off. I'd assume Sebastien is the same way."

Chuck nodded and the two continued to work. Eventually, they were able heal all of the wounds. Bob helped sit Mike up and gave him a bottle containing the same red potion that he had given Amelia.

"There, he should be fine now. Get him something to eat and he'll be as good as new," Bob said as he stood up.

As he turned to walk away, he could hear a thump as William undoubtedly threw Mike up against the wall. He sighed to himself, but resigned himself to walk away before he could get involved again.

After Bob and Chuck had walked away, William grabbed Mike by the collar and threw him up against the wall.

"What did I tell you?" he asked, leaning in close

Mike avoided his gaze.

"Look at me!" he commanded, his voice low

Begrudgingly, Mike looked at William.

"I can't believe that you are so stupid. In what way did you think going after the Waterbender was a good idea? While I admit that I'm not surprised that you did this, I would have at least thought the threat of being ripped apart would have been enough to discourage you. I guess I was wrong, and look what happened. You almost lost your life and it's no one's fault but your own. Let that be a lesson to you. The next time you step out of line, I'll make sure that no one is there to save you. Now get away from me. You disgust me," William finished. He shoved Mike across the room and stalked away.

Why was it that this series of events with the creepypastas was actually creating more problems than the conference weekend had?


	13. Chapter 13

As soon as Bob and Chuck had finished with Carden and William had talked to him, everyone tried to think of something to fix the bigger predicament they'd found themselves in - that the creepypastas certainly were real.

"So. Tonight was eventful. I got bit, The Rake almost made a meal out of Panic!, Frank wanted to light the entire forest on fire, and AJ's frustrated - yet again." Amelia couldn't help the crack at AJ, it just seemed like the thing to say to get the rest of the Dandies to like her.

"Mention anything like that again and Mike won't be the only one that bit you tonight," AJ shot back semi-seriously as William's arms wound around her waist, as if to assure her the issue would be taken care of later.

"Don't forget two of us tried to rip out somebody's throat for you, too." Mikey added.

"But back to what I was saying - AJ...that guy you saw...he sounds alot like-"

"She didn't see him. Not the entirety of his face anyways, I told her not to look - for being as old as I am, even that smile unnerved me." William cut in, speaking of the...thing, person, whatever it was that was serving as the reason AJ was so frustrated.

"Its smile...you'd think he was a newborn vampire driven completely mad with bloodlust, if that. The eyes were just as crazed, and the speed it moved at was almost equal to our own."

"The Smiling Man." Amelia stated -it was just another creepypasta that had come to life.

"And what did I say about a psychotic killer coming after us?" AJ teased.

"Oh shut up. We both know you meant Jeff the Killer."

"So...what's next? I think I'm gonna go to the local library...Brendon, Mike, would you two like to join me?"

Amelia looked to William - this was new, she actually wanted to get away from William for a while.

"Uh, yeah sure. We'll be back?" Brendon said, before adding, "Wait a minute...it's 4 in the morning!"

She immediately brightened up, "Ok, so no library. Starbucks!"

"No." William and Amelia had both yelled at the same time Chuck and Gerard had yelled "Go ahead!"

She smiled, "Kays. See you guys around lunch? Be back soon!"

"What the hell was all that for? Scaring me earlier." Brendon remarked as the three sat in the corner at the nearby Starbucks, AJ nursing a triple shot americano alongside a cheesecake brownie, vanilla scone and chocolate turnover.

"It's not like I meant you any harm. Figured you needed a taste of your own medicine for once, although playing games is typically more Adam and Andy's thing."

"And Mike if you're trying to get yourself killed in the process." Brendon added with a smile at the older vampire who only nodded.

"So why us? We both know there's an ulterior motive – you never want to be anyway from William – only reason would be if there was something you didn't want him to know." Mike pointed out, half heartedly motioning to the plate of treats AJ hadn't yet touched.

"Go ahead. And uh, yeah – that's why I brought you two specifically. I kinda have this idea to catch Slenderman. Well, lure him to us, I guess. It's a little out there, but I need your help."

The two looked at each other before Brendon had picked up the turnover and broke it in half, passing the larger one to Mike.

"Illusions, right? And probably something along the lines that'll piss William off while we're at it?" Brendon guessed, unable to hide his smile.

She nodded.

"So the Slenderman goes after children – he's often seen wearing a black suit, with, well, no face. And uh, seeing as no-one involved in any of this is technically a child, I kinda want – do you see my dilemma?"

"We got this. Brendon, how do we even want to-"

"One step ahead of you. I actually had an ex that was around here – and we're in luck. I know by now she's got kids, but they're not old – one's not even four and the other is eight or nine. So we could technically forgo the illusion…we know we need to hunt, and just this once, it wouldn't be a bad idea."

"Free food. Blonde? Brunette? What?"

"Blonde – little darker than Adeline. But yeah – we kill her, change the kids, and make them think they're safe with us until I can screw with their minds. All's said and done, AJ'll look like the mom they never had." Brendon explained with a grin, finishing of the turnover, reaching for the brownie before AJ slapped

at his hand.

"Are you two insane? We can't- the police! What if-" she protested, completely astounded the two were thinking of killing someone just to kidnap their kids so her plan could work.

"Oh sweetie, you've got a lot to learn if you think you're the only one that William has complete control over."

AJ gawked, "Meaning that-"

"Police force are already all vampires, doll. And every single last one has Irish blood." Mike explained.

"So I guess it's alright? If we- well if you- uh…fix the plan? When do-"

"Tonight. We'll take care of it. Could you meet us back here around ten? Make sure William doesn't know you've left."

AJ nodded, "I can do that. I hope. And thank you. But if either one of you tries to start shit with Simple Plan or My Chemical Romance at all again you'll never hear the end of it, alright?"

The two nodded.

Later that night almost everybody had settled down and had tried to forget about the things that had occurred in the woods. Well, almost everybody, anyways.

AJ lay awake in her and William's room, completely unable to rest easy even after her lust had subsided - the sound of its laugh still rang in her head and the glowing eyes were found everytime she closed her own.

The soft buzzing of her phone underneath her pillow startled her into gasping, but she laughed as she realized it had only been the message indicator. Turning over and sliding the keyboard open, she found a

text from Amelia.

'You still awake? I can't sleep...I'm hungry, and...do you guys even have food here?'

AJ shook her head, even though Amelia wasn't in the same room.

'Of course we have food, what kind of hosts would we be? I'll meet you in the kitchen, here's hoping nobody else notices we're up, we've all had a pretty rough day and most of us need our sleep.'

'Most of us - sure. And kitchen? Yeah.'

AJ slipped her phone back under her pillow and turned over into William, sighing - even if she was a vampire, just getting out of bed was going to be tough.

Moving quick was going to be the best thing to avoid disturbing him, so she turned back over and tried to wriggle out of his arms in one movement, giggling as she landed on the floor.

And then had an after thought.

I could've just fucking teleported, damnit.

Facepalming at her own stupidity, she tiptoed out of the bedroom and down the staircase, into the foyer, smiling as she saw some of the guys stretched out on the couches, atleast two more appearing comfortable on the floor.

As soon as she got into the kitchen, she flipped on the small oversink light, knowing it wasn't as bright as the light built into the fan.

"Amelia?"

"What?"

"Oh, alright, you're down here. Good. I'm freaked out honestly. I just can't sleep. Not that I need it, but still."

"You too? And like...you said you had food. Remember when we were younger how we used to hide junk food in the basement refrigerator? Just so your parents wouldn't catch us?"

AJ laughed, "Oh boy. You're gonna love this. Come on." Amelia only gave the blonde a look as she opened the door that led downstairs, an almost childlike grin on her face.

"You've got to be kidding me."

The fridge that was downstairs was heavily stocked - both with blood bags of assorted types and human junk food - different candies and sodas and from the looks of it, even-

"Chocolate chip cookie dough. Oh my god, it's like we're ten and eleven again. Did you seriously -"

"Figured you'd remember. Bought all this stuff the night we got here, knew someone would eat it."

"I know I'd never say this, but I can eat that entire bowl myself." Amelia said, grabbing for the bowl, pulling a half-handful of cookie dough out, immediately biting into it.

"You don't know how old you're making me feel right now."

"Yeah? And if that's anything, this house is really old, and it's almost like the furnace with all the piping, so if-"

*BANG*

A loud, metallic sound rings through the air, as if on cue, AJ screams, turning to sprint for the stairs, Amelia two steps ahead of her, only afraid of the vampire running her over. When the two reach the landing on the stairs, they don't stop, each one is running at full speed, trying to get back to their respective rooms and dive into bed and pull the blanket high over their head.

"Tell me you didn't plan that!" Amelia wondered as she ran for the stairs, not realizing the pathway leading from the kitchen seemed -

"No I didn- ufph."

"Fuck." AJ deadpanned, having ran straight into somebody. Not that she was surprised, but still.

"And just what are the two of you doing up at this hour?" William was leaning up against the doorframe, arms crossed.

"I...uh...Amelia was...she was hungry?" AJ tried, clearly flustered - having been startled once again by something appearing out of nothing.

"I can't sleep. Neither of us can." Amelia supplied, to which William nodded, "I figured, you must've texted Adeline. I know she thinks she got out of the room without me noticing, but, dear, did you really think I wouldn't realize?"

"I just wanted to go see what was wrong! And didn't you just hear that loud bang? Like it was a knock, but it wasn't. Amelia, wasn't it like -"

*BANG*

Both girls screamed, AJ throwing herself into William, Amelia taking off for the stairs only to trip into Seb, who had woken up, having heard the commotion from the kitchen.

"Hey, it's probably just the furnace or something, this mansion is old. Your mind is running on empty from all the things that happened today, you just need some sleep. Go back to bed, Rae."

She shook her head, eyes wide as they stared at the basement door.

"I don't think I'll ever sleep again. Especially in the sandman is involved. Or Jeff...or Smile Dog...or-"

Seb sighed, holding out a hand.

"Come on. This isn't any worse than the hotel - those things can't get us here."

Amelia didn't move, although she knew she really wanted to fall asleep in his arms again.

"But AJ's reflection - it...that was here!" she pointed out, still freaked out.

"It ran off...it can't hurt you. I'm pretty sure AJ herself wouldn't let it back in, or anywhere near the rest of us." he reassured, only to hear AJ chime in, "Damn straight!" before William had shushed her.

Too tired to argue anymore and in desperate need of sleep, Amelia took his hand and they headed up the staircase toward Amelia's room, AJ and William not far behind, disappearing down the hall to the other set of upstairs rooms.


	14. Chapter 14

"Oh come on! That wasn't the furnace! It sounded like a body dropping! Or - fuck...it's another one. Three knocks - shit. Great. To hell with this, I'm not sleeping." AJ set up in the middle of the bed, wolf pelt curled around her, nails digging into the soft fur.

William sighed, sitting down next to her.

"Yes you are. And even so, it was only two. The third may never come. It sounds harmless, this three knocks - opposed to the things that we've encountered already. Now lie down, doll. Sleep."

"I already said I'm not."

She couldn't hide the playfully grin on her face, even though she'd pulled the pelt up higher, biting into it to try and cover her mouth. She knew tonight that Mike and Brendon were out, already working on the plan – she was supposed to meet them early the next morning to see if everything worked.

"Hey!" she'd protested as he'd tugged the pelt away from her, his reaction not exactly what she'd been expecting.

He glared, although one hand went to stroke her cheek.

"Look, I've already had quite the day - first Gerard and Amelia show up, and then with all the chaos in the woods, and to top it all off I've had to talk to Mike yet again. I'm sick of the way everyone is acting, and I don't need further defiance from you, do you understand?"

Her smile faltered, she didn't dare argue.

"Y-Yes. What's gotten into you? I've never seen you this-"

"Exasperated? Concerned? Completely unsure of how to handle something for once?"

She nodded to all three.

"Well...yeah. And we're all that way...it's not even that I'm worried about the boys...it's more Amelia. I just...after Spring break...I don't want all that to happen again. Except this time I think it's worse. I might've just added to things by talking to Mike about this plan I had about Slenderman, I just-"

"Wait. You talked to him, about what? And I mean what exactly."

*BANG*

She screamed, and then froze, fuck, she hadn't wanted to mention any of that.

"Alright fuck this nope nope nope. Loud banging noises are not conducive to one's mental health. Well I'm kinda supposed to meet him and Brendon tonight at Starbucks again…they added a little more to the plan I thought of, and wanted me to check everything out. I figured having them helping out with going after Slendy would help keep everything calm, seeing as the two of them are the ones always starting things." She explained, hoping he wasn't reading her thoughts as she spoke.

If he found about everything before it was set in stone – oh, she really didn't want to think about that.

William had insisted upon going with Adeline to meet Brendon and Mike at the local starbucks, fully aware that it could only mean trouble, being he had never been informed of whatever 'plan' they had until last minute.

The second he walked into the coffee shop, he felt the boys' auroras cringe. They knew they were in trouble.

AJ immediately set a hand on his arm; he sensed she was trying to calm him, although he hadn't even said anything.

"Look, I don't want you mad at me for this. But it's all for chasing after the creepypastas. I realize we're risking a lot…and I love you, but…just hear the whole thing out."

He looked around the small modern café, just waiting for whatever was out of the ordinary to reveal itself.

AJ had noticed Brendon on the far side of the shop, one of the tables nearest the fireplace. He was talking to someone, and when Mike nodded beside him, AJ realized everything had worked.

"Turn around, sweetheart," she heard Brendon murmur to the young girl he'd been talking to, her hair just as blonde as AJ's with a slight wave that was enough to rival William's.

"MOM!" The girl had yelled, taking off from where she'd stood to tackle AJ into a hug, her smaller arms wrapping around the older vampire. AJ immediately smiled, one hand resting in the girl's hair the same way William had held her after he'd appeared in her kitchen. And that was when she noticed there was another little girl – perched on the chair next to Mike, she appeared no older than four, with dark brown hair tumbling down in tight curls that made even AJ jealous – this girl had the perfect Victorian ringlets.

"I thought you'd- Uncle Brendon said-" the younger blonde stuttered, voice muffled by AJ's blouse.

AJ glanced at Brendon, mouthing a 'really? Uncle?'

"It doesn't matter what he said. I told you we'd be back, didn't I?"

The girl nodded, "And Ivy's been super good too…she hasn't broken anything or thrown a fit yet!"

Ivy. William's head spun – had Brendon and Mike really gone that far with AJ's plan? To sire Brendon's exgirlfriend's children? Better yet – why was it the older one was referring to AJ as her mom? Surely Brendon hadn't employed the memory modification techniques William normally used…And then things clicked – Slenderman normally went after children – hence why all the trouble had happened – this was all to serve a mean to an end. William almost smiled, it seemed at times AJ could think better on her feet than he could.

"Mike?" he'd asked, the shaggy haired vampire turning to him, and for a moment William saw apprehension in his green eyes – he knew he'd done wrong in helping AJand was all the more nervous about the elder vampire's reaction.

"I'm so sorry William, I know you didn't want them drinking caffeine like Adeline, but Ivy has hot chocolate and Evangeline has-"

"Green tea with two shots of vanilla," the older child spoke.

"It's not the caffeine I'm concerned about," he began, walking over, noticing the little girl seemed to recognize him, her eyes lighting up as she clapped her hands.

"DADDIO!" the girl cried happily, and almost instantly AJ laughed – this was something she never would have dreamed of – and yet here it was.

"It's why you two couldn't've just brought them straight home after we'd returned as well. There was no need to bring them here, you know what the underbelly of this city is like." He finished, picking up the brunette, turning to look at AJ, a 'I-know-what-you-did-but-I'm-not-sure-whether-to-b e-mad-or-indifferent' look in his eyes.

"Well, we should go home than, shouldn't we? It's past everyone's bedtimes, and I as recall, we're all supposed to leave for Montreal tomorrow. At least, that's what Amelia's been saying. Hard to believe our week's up already. But it'll be fun - new places always are." AJ explained, turning towards the door, taking the young girl's hand in her own as the group headed back to the mansion.


	15. Chapter 15

(the next morning)

"Please tell me I'm fucking dreaming." Amelia deadpanned as she walked down into the foyer, startled to see an eight year old that looked a lot like AJ jumping up and down on the couch, while a younger girl cheered her on with 'Higher! Higher!' every few seconds.

"I don't think you're-" Gerard had started before William had swept into the room, picking the older one off the couch and setting her on the floor, making her look at him.

"I've told you not to climb on the furniture, love. Now go on, go help mom pack. Your sister, too."

Amelia and Gerard were both sure they'd fallen down some rabbit hole, or opened a door into the twilight zone.

"William? What the hell?" Gerard asked as the two ran back upstairs, shouting for AJ.

"Long story short, Adeline's thought of a way to make Slenderman appear."

"But they're...they're not real, are they?" Amelia wondered.

"The children? Of course they are. Used to live around here with an ex-girlfriend of Brendon's."

"But how-"

"As I understand, Brendon and Mike killed their mom, who was Brendon's ex. Then he turned the two and modified their memories - and now they believe Adeline and I to be their parents."

"But we're not seriously taking them along, are we?"

"Until Slenderman shows, unfortunately. If luck would have it, one of the children will be taken within a few days. With the other - I doubt Adeline will want to see them both gone, although why she thinks of such an insane idea in the first place confounds me."

"Like the rest of us."

Once everyone had gotten packed and settled to leave, the overall hecticness of travel seemed to calm down. Figuring everyone would just move the way they'd shown up to Amelia and AJ's in the first place, the entire group soon found themselves in the apartment Simple Plan used when they were off tour.

It seemed pretty nice, considering it was different than what Amelia had expected.

With five guys, she'd think there'd be sports and gear magazines everywhere with pizza boxes and assorted chip bags around, but the place was clean.

"Figured it's best we get our bearings here, then we all can move down to the hotel where we've booked room for you guys," Pierre explained as everyone looked around.

"Uh..." Amelia looked at Seb right away, thinking of what AJ had told her the week prior, "You think if I...stayed with you guys that'd be okay? You know, like how AJ stayed with-"

Amelia couldn't help smiling at AJ's whistle of approval.

"And you said you were the innocent one. Yeah right."

"That's fine, Rae. Trust me." Seb had answered, looking directly at AJ, who immediately started laughing.

"Would you mind-"

"Got it." And without a word, William had spun the blonde around, murmuring a single word that caused her to collapse into his arms.

"There. Should be quiet for a little bit. So…after we all get set up and what not, what's next? Given what happened in Chicago I don't think the best idea is just sitting around waiting for something to happen."

"Well, actually, there IS an older house around here you Dandies could stay at that's similar to the mansion in Chicago…and there'd be enough room for MCR to stay there too. If you wouldn't mind, I can see if the hotel reservations are transferable, seeing as the house is like a bed and breakfast," Chuck pointed out.

Chislett nodded, "That'd be great, mate. Anything that's similar to what we're used to – helps us stay into with the living history we've tended to turn into over the years." He explained.

The rest of the Dandies nodded, before David piped up excitedly about something.

"Hey, isn't that festival this weekend?"

"What festi- OH, right! So there's a fall festival tonight, seeing as Halloween's coming up…they're be food and bonfires and stuff, and I think there's even a corn maze we could burn off some stress in." Jeff explained.

Gerard shrugged, "Sounds cool to me but- Frank, don't try to burn the whole thing to the ground this time."

"Oh come on! That was years ago! I've got more control now!"

Amelia giggled, "Yeah, about as much as AJ when she's-"

"ALL RIGHT I GET IT! Fine, I won't play with fire….killjoys."

The entire group laughed, but everyone agreed that a festival sounded like fun, as a way to get away from all the creepy stuff that was happening.

"Alright, so this is cool. CORN MAZE!" AJ yelled, taking off towards the stalks that were easily a foot and a half taller than her.

As expected, the two girls ran after her, giggling.

William only walked behind with the rest of his men, shaking his head.

"I knew this was a bad idea. Why didn't you stop her before this whole thing-"

"Brendon's idea." Mike cut in, because in truth, that's what it had been. He'd known AJ was initially going to ask him to use his abilities to make an illusion out of everything for it to work, but of course Brendon had to be bull-headed and change the plan.

"Typical. But this corn maze…I just have a rather bad feeling. Something's going to happen, it always does." And shrugging, William walked off to catch up to Adeline, noticing her brunette friend walking with Robert and Chislett.

Seb and Mikey both thought it'd be best to stay by eachother, but in natural bad luck the found themselves stuck in a group with the most annoying of the Dandies, Sisky, been everyone had split off into groups once in the maze.

"Ryan? Do you hear that?" Butcher asked nervously, having been positive he was hearing footsteps, although Ryan and Jeff were walking some ten feet ahead of him.

"Relax, it's probably just Jon and his group."

"Or Spencer and his," Butcher added, knowing Panic's drummer was with Gerard and the waterbender before he spoke up again, "But Jon would keep the other two calm, I can't see them trying to scare us. Unlike AJ…"

"She's got Carden and William with her, and the girls."

"Well then what the-"

"BOO!"

Somewhere in the back of all the vampires' minds, there's a shout that doesn't quite sound like ANY of them. This makes everyone laugh, but upon realizing it wasn't one of their own, the screaming and running begins yet again.


	16. Chapter 16

"Have I mentioned how much I hate these?" AJ commented as she, William, Mike, Ivy and Evie all hit yet another dead end, if they'd still been mortal their hearts would've been racing due to the loud telepathic 'BOO!' they'd all heard not two seconds before, causing the two girls to scream in mock fright, Evie holiding tight to AJ's dress, her younger sister stopping and turning to William, holding her arms up to signify she wanted to be carried, knowing she felt safer that way.

"You've said that atleast ten times now, doll," William reminded, lifting Ivy into his arms before hearing Adeline's sigh.

"No, I mean, I. Really. HATE. These. This one halloween, the weekend before our final cross country meet, coach decided to take the team out for a run...clocked us running through one of these, in broad daylight, and it was actually abnormally warm. We'd drank all our water in the first twenty minutes, and we kept getting lost. Marley was stupid enough to try to go through the corn itself, not the path. We lost her, and then Rose and Xena split off down a fork - the entire team got separated eventually, that's why I hate these. I'd hate to be wandering in one of these alone - 'specially with the stuff we've ran into already."

"Being separated sounds kinda fun." The eight year old stated, causing her younger sister to giggle, before adding a, "HIDE AND SEEK!" at the top of her lungs.

"No." Both William and AJ are quick to object, and Mike looks between the four, smiling.

"It's not like they're going to get lost if they keep to the path. What's the worst that could happen?"

AJ stopped dead midstep, turning around, not realizing the girls had ran on.

"Did. You. Really. Just. Go. There?"

"Again, not like they won't be easy to find. They scream louder than you do!"

"If you even think I'm going to le-" She started, glaring before she felt William's hand on her shoulder, "Adeline, relax. He's got a point, and they're children. They need to get away from the group - you remember what it was like after you were first turned, don't you? You never wanted to stay- oh wait, no, you were different. Well, put it this way - after Brendon and Mike were turned they took every opportunity possible to get a break from me."

"Yeah, all we wanted was a little fun - go drinking and start murdering the local girls that thought they knew better, but nnnnoooo you wouldn't have that." Mike pointed out.

AJ rolled her eyes, "Still if you even think I'm going to- wait. It's qui- I don't..."

She paused, looking around, scanning for any sign of the two on the immediate path.

They were nowhere in sight.

"Ivy, we're fine. Just stay close to me. Isn't this fun? You know mom's gonna come screaming for us eventually."

The four year old only laughed, still staring wide eyed at the corn stalks that were nearly twice her height.

"Wouldn't it be cool if there was a scary monster after us?"

"NA UH! SCARY!" Ivy replied, clutching her sister's hand tighter. Evie grinned, knowing William and AJ weren't around to stop an argument.

"Would not."

"Would too!"

"Would NOT!"

"WOULD TOO!"

Both laughed, before they turned a corner. It was a dead end. But it wasn't exactly dead. Because standing at the end, in a nice suit with a tie, was a man.

Evie screamed, half in fear, half thinking it was funny.

But this guy was scary - it looked like he was wearing a mask that he hid his face, and he just was standing there.

Come along, young one. I won't hurt you. I am the Slender Man.

He spoke, but he didn't have any lips that she could see.

"Who...why? I'm with my sister...our parents are-"

Don't worry about her. Let your parents find her...I only want to show you a new part of this maze...I'll bring you right back, I promise.

"Dad told me to not trust anybody I don't know." Evie continued, although she took a step forward, surprised when this 'Slender Man' held out his hand.

"EVIE DON'T!" Ivy yelled, and instantly let go of her other hand, leaving Evie to walk, suddenly transfixed toward the man who had beckoned her.

"Well, if you promise. I guess they wouldn't mind." She smiled, putting her hand in his own before continuing, "Ivy, tell Mom and Dad I'll be-" she turned to look at her sister, but she couldn't see anything. It appeared her sister had ran away, screaming like the baby she was.

Evie laughed, looking at the tall man with no face, happy he'd given her a way to ditch her sister.

"Let's go have some fun."

Meanwhile, AJ immediately turned on Mike.

"You just HAD to make me mad, didn't you? IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO THEM, I SW-"

A small child's scream from somewhere in the distance is heard, and without hesitation, her fist connected with his face in a moment of sheer mama grizzly rage.

Before William could even say anything, the blonde had taken off in the direction of the scream, her own voice calling the girls' names as one continued screaming for her.

She found her, towards a dead end, eyes wide with fear, pointing at something that wasn't minute Ivy saw AJ; the latter kneeling to comfort the terrified little girl, the former throwing herself into her arms, refusing to let go.

"Ivy? Sweetie what happened? Where's your sister?"

"She...she...Man in black! He took her!"

AJ gasped, hugging the girl tighter as she stood to walk back to the others, "It's okay darling…we'll find her…I promise. I promise."

By this point, William had caught up to AJ, and instantly the fact that he knew what had happened registered on his face. AJ managed a sad smile as William pulled her into a hug, motioning for her to pass Ivy off to him.

She did, reaching up a hand to run it through her own hair before standing on her tiptoes to kiss Ivy's forehead, before looking at him.

"She's only nine, William. He couldn't've-"

He only shrugged, supporting the girl against his shoulder, one of his hands lightly rubbing her back as she'd began to cry for her older sister, "You wanted this."


	17. Chapter 17

Once Slenderman had walked away with the older girl, AJ had called Amelia, freaking out. After that, everyone decided to regroup. Chislett had gone off to try and find William.

"So now that one girl is gone, what happens to the other one?" Amelia asked, walking alongside Bob and Frank, who had managed to break off from his group and find them.

"It's simple, kill the spare," Frank suggested, grinning foolishly.

Amelia laughed at the Harry Potter reference.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea," Bob mused.

Frank turned to look at him.

"Jeez, Bob, I was only kidding."

"Too bad I wasn't. I'm serious. We need to teach the Dandies a lesson. We aren't here to be messing with human lives, but they just don't seem to understand that. I'm going to teach them a lesson they will never forget," Bob declared.

His tone was serious, so both Amelia and Frank knew there was no way they were going to convince him otherwise.

The three of them walked to a large open space in the middle of the maze. Several paths diverged from this location. Bob sent up a shower of red sparks to alert everyone to their location.

After a few moments, everyone had assembled. AJ explained what had happened to the older girl. She seemed really distraught. She was clinging tightly to William, who was cradling the other girl against him, her head resting on his shoulder, eyes closed because she'd exhausted herself from crying.

"Well, what do we want to do?" he asked, looking to where Gerard stood. Gerard turned to look at Bob, who nodded and walked forward, wand raised.

Almost at once, David connected the dots and immediately protested.

"No, Bob! You can't do that. You can't do that!" he exclaimed

"Seb, get him out of here," Bob instructed, not pausing to look at David.

Seb walked up to David and attempted to lead him away. He struggled, trying to free himself from Sebastien's grip.

"NO! I CAN'T LET YOU DO THIS! STOP, LET ME GO!" he yelled as Sebastien dragged him away

"W-what are you doing?" AJ asked as Bob got closer, motioning for William to set Ivy down.

To her surprise William gave a solemn nod and set the girl down on her feet, murmuring something AJ couldn't hear.

"Come here, Ivy," Bob said, his tone soft.

As she moved to walk towards the wizard, AJ grabbed her arm, eyes darting between Bob and William.

"No, no, stay here, sweetheart," she coaxed, trying to keep the girl from walking to Bob before she'd added, "What did you two do to her?!"

Bob looked up at AJ and then looked at Ivy.

"Imperio," he said softly. At once, the child walked towards Bob. Before AJ could even move, Bob raised his wand again.

He offered up a silent apology before casting the Killing Curse. The girl's lifeless body dropped to ground. It was silent for a moment before AJ started screaming and lunged at Bob, anger and sorrow in her eyes, William getting his arms around her not two seconds later, trying to hold her still though she fought like a caged animal. Bob turned and started walking away.

"HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?! YOU JUST KILLED A CHILD! YOU, YOU, YOU'RE A MONSTER!" she screamed, voice cracking with tears, trying to free herself from William's vicelike grip, which he only tightened once she'd began screaming.

Bob turned around at her words and walked back to her, wand held in front of him.

"Really? You're really going to call me a monster? Seems a bit like the pot calling the kettle black," he said, his voice cold and calculated.

"BUT YOU HAD A CHOICE! YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO DO THAT!" As this point William had tried to get a hand around her mouth to quiet her, but in natural defense, the younger vampire had sunk her teeth in, and proceeded to hang on for dear life.

"Do you think I really wanted to do that? I did what I had to do. And how dare you talk to me about having a choice, when you obviously don't know the meaning of the phrase."

She finally stopped struggling against William's grasp and let his hand go, satisfied at the amount of blood she'd drawn, though he didn't relax any for fear of her going after someone else.

"What? What do you mean?"

"I'm referring to the little girls, and how they didn't have a choice."

"What are you talking about?" AJ asked, which only infuriated Bob more. He took a deep breath.

"When you kidnapped those girls and killed their mother, did they have a choice?" he questioned

"What - " AJ started before Bob cut her off.

"When you brainwashed those girls and filled their heads with lies, did they have a choice?"

With every question, Bob got closer to AJ.

"When you had those two monsters," he started, pointing at Mike and Brendon, "drain every last drop of blood from their bodies, when they held their dying bodies in their arms, when you saw the last spark of vitality leave their eyes, did they have a choice?"

Bob was an arm's length away from AJ. He raised his wand. Out of instinct, all of William's men stiffened.

"Oh relax. If I had wanted to hurt her, I would have done it already. My point is that those girls never had a choice. It was wrong of you guys to do what you did. I made an example of the other girl, so let this be a lesson to you all: we are not here to mess with human lives. That's not our job and I swear on my life, if any of you try anything like that ever again, I will do everything in my power to stop you and then I will make you pay," Bob threatened.

With that, he Apparated away, leaving everyone else stunned into silence.

After Bob's outburst, no one knew what to say. AJ only sank to her knees and crawled forward, cradling the girl's lifeless body to her, soft cries still leaving her lips. Within seconds, only the Dandies remained in the area, everyone else having went back to the house they were staying at.

"Come on…we should-" Ryan started.

"Adeline…I'm sorry…really I didn't think anything like this would-" Brendon apologized, although the sheer lingering rage in her eyes made him shut up.

"All of you. Go. Away." She was quiet, but stern.

William walked up to her and crouched besides her, gently setting a hand on her shoulder, "Love, Ryan's right. We should just-"

"Even you, mon chere. Go. I just need some time. I'll be fine, I promise. I'll be back to the place soon. Just go."

William reluctantly nodded, it was clear she needed to be by herself for awhile.

Once the rest of the Dandies got back to the house everyone was sharing. David offered to take all of the vampires out hunting, which they greatly accepted. Some of the others decided to just go to sleep. AJ came in about ten minutes after everyone had gone and retreated to the room she shared with William without a word.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Seb asked Amelia

"She'll be fine. Just leave her alone for a while," she replied.

"Where are you going?" he asked as Amelia walked away

"I'm going to explore," she replied.

Before Seb could say anything, William and Gerard walked around the corner.

"Hey Seb, can we talk somewhere in private?" Gerard asked

Seb nodded. He lead the two to an office on the second floor. He ushered them in and closed the door. It was quiet for a moment.

"So, are we just going to stand here or are we going to talk about what just happened?" William asked

"Well, you guys went and kidnapped some girls, one of them got taken by Slenderman, Bob killed the other one...what more is there to say?" Sebastien questioned

William took a deep breath before replying.

"Yes, and I will be the first to admit that Adeline's plan was wrong from the beginning, although it had never been intended for the children to be real in the first place. That being said, the wizard shouldn't have killed the other girl. It makes him nothing more than a murderer."

"That's a little harsh, don't you think? Besides, Bob had a valid point. We are not here to be messing with human lives. That's not why those conferences were created. Those conferences were created so that we could keep balance between the supernatural and the mortal worlds. If at any time something went out of balance, we were always there to correct it. This is no different, " Gerard reasoned.

William knew that he couldn't argue with that. He nodded to show that he agreed.

"If that's the case, how should we proceed?" Sebastien asked

"Well, the fact that these creatures are suddenly appearing means that something somewhere has fallen out of whack. We need to find whatever it is and correct it before anyone else gets hurt. Let's stay here in Montreal for a few days, then we can go to Jersey and see what happens there," Gerard said.

"Sounds good enough to me," William agreed as the three of them filed out of the room.


	18. Chapter 18

After walking away from Sebastien, Amelia went to find Bob. She wanted to make sure he was okay. As she walked down a hallway filled with several rooms, she could hear two people talking. She could just barely recognize one as Bob's voice. Just as she was about to knock on the door of the room, the door opened and Jon Walker walked out. He nodded towards Amelia to acknowledge her and then walked away.

Amelia knocked quietly on the doorframe.

"Hey Bob, it's Amelia. Can I come in?" she asked

"Sure," came the reply from inside.

Amelia walked inside and closed the door. Bob was sitting on the edge of a bed, his head held in his hands.

"What's up?" he asked

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay after everything that happened tonight," Amelia said as she took a chair and sat across from him.

"Me? Yeah, I'll be okay. It's not the first time I've killed someone," he replied.

"Do you want to talk about it? I'm here to listen if you need someone to talk to," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Bob couldn't help but smile.

"You're going to school to be a nurse, right?" he asked

Amelia nodded.

"You're going to make a great nurse someday," he said and Amelia beamed.

"Okay, so let me just start out by saying that I hate using Unforgivable Curses. In order to cast one, you have to fill your heart with so much anger and darkness. I don't like feeling like that, you know? That's why Jon was here. He was trying to help me get rid of those negative emotions. And being the way AJ just came in and shut down like that, you might want to go talk to her yourself…" he suggested.

"I think William'll probably get a chance before I would to be honest. But there is one thing…I wanted to go to the library tomorrow…I just saw that the local kids tv network is playing Goosebumps movies and I kinda feel like reading those books again, seeing as it's Halloween and we're dealing with this stuff."

Bob nodded, "I think we should all take a day or two. Especially AJ, she's going to need it."

"Right. I think you're right…maybe I should go talk to AJ. If you want to talk later we can, just text me – I'll probably be up on tumblr or something."

"Alright."

With that, Amelia went to walk towards her and Seb's room, when an idea hit her. There had once been a Goosebumps book called 'Be Careful Want You Wish For'. And then Amelia realized that the night before Simple Plan and William had shown up, she had made an 11:11 wish – that the creepypastas has been real.

Could a simple wish have caused all this trouble?

Meanwhile, AJ couldn't have felt worse. She sort of just had frozen – the moment the younger girl's body had dropped to the ground, something in her heart had felt like it had broken, even if it had been an artificial feeling in the first place.

The stillness of the room didn't help much; it only allowed her thoughts to continue chewing at her, though she could hear hushed voices from the other rooms.

At a knock on the door, AJ sat up and grabbed for the cloak William usually let her wear, wrapping it around her, trying to smile. In hindsight, the dark grey woolen fabric had become like a security blanket, not only because it carried his scent.

"I'm okay, I promise." She couldn't hide the smile at the obvious song reference, but her eyes widened in surprise when the door opened and in walked Amelia.

"You thought I was William, didn't you?"

The blonde nodded.

"So listen…I realize as bad as that was, both your idea and what Bob did and all, but I think I've got this figured out. I think I know what started all of this."

"WHAT?" At once, AJ had thrown her arms around the older girl in a hug, unbelievably happy that all the craziness might be ending.

"You remember Goosebumps, right? Those old books we used to read?"

"Well yeah, I only had two bookcases full…"

"Remember that one with the piano on the cover? It was called 'Be Careful What You Wish For'. And we all know wishing can be dangerous."

"Wait a minute. I think – you're not. Really?"

"I think that 11:11 wish at your place started everything, because that night was when you ran into a certain somebody again."

AJ's eyes widened, and she pulled back to pull the cloak tighter around her, burying her face in the fabric.

"Oh my god. You're right. The next morning we found Simple Plan in the kitchen. And then-"

"Exactly."

It was quiet for a few moments as both of the girls realized exactly what that meant.

"So…if we just reverse the wish, this stuff should just go away, right? Like, my reflection might come back?"

"You're a vampire, I don't see why you have one in the first place, but yeah, the human side of you should come back if this works. Just don't invite yourself for coffee. You know how those 11:11 wishes go. Lord knows you've used enough of them."

AJ rolled her eyes, "Haven't had to since last year, if you get what I'm saying."

Amelia laughed.

"Yeah? What about those new UGGs you wanted so badly?"

"Already taken care of." A new voice chimed from the doorway, both girls turned to see William leaning against the doorframe, looking surprisingly relaxed.

"How long have you-"

"Only enough to hear the whole thing. So it's a wish, you say?"

"More or less a teenage girl tradition, but yeah. If we all wish for this stuff to go away at 11:11 PM tonight, judging by that's what started this, it should also end it. I'll leave you two, this is your room after all." Amelia said, getting up after she'd noticed the clear 'come-pick-me-up' look AJ had given William.

"Just don't forget. Make that wish. The more people the better."

After leaving the two of them, Amelia went to go talk to Seb and Simple Plan. The boys had been playing charades in the living room and Amelia had walked in on David doing a poor impression of a robot.

"David, stop being a moron...that's nowhere near close to a robot!"

"You're next! You win!" he cheered, laughing as he jumped for the sofa's open spot between Chuck and Jeff.

"Sorry guys...I don't really do...games. I suck at them. But listen. I think I know how to stop the creepypastas. So the night before you guys all showed up, I made this wish, right?"

"Wishing doesn't make anything happen." Chuck pointed out, although Amelia shook her head.

"Ever hear of the 11:11 ones?"

All five of the boys sighed collectively. Taking that as a yes, Amelia continued.

"So I know we've all said there's been problems through the cities we've already checked out before I made the wish, but what if it only intensified it?"

"I guess I can see that. But..you really think just wishing'll stop it?" Jeff asked.

Amelia nodded, "Looks like the only option we've got. You've gotta fight fire with fire sometimes. Beat the creeypastas with a creepypasta, 'cuz I've seen some of these wishes go really bad."

"Like the one we're dealing with." Pierre added with a smile.

"Exactly."

"But after all this - if they do go away - it's like Spring Break...you'll just forget about us, right?" Seb wondered, Amelia noticed the hurt in his voice.

"Well no! I couldn't forget you guys! I'll still come to shows and stuff like that, I just won't...run around and fight evil. I need to get my degree, go to school. I'd like to save lives when I'm older. Maybe work in a major hospital of something."

"Oh." he sighed, "It's late. Getting closer to that time you mentioned every minute, we should probably just go to bed."

"Agreed."


	19. Chapter 19

Both Amelia and AJ went to bed that night, wishing on 11:11, that everything would just stop and go back to as normal as things could be considering the circumstances.

Amelia was wrapped up in Seb's arms, her head on his chest, completely aware this was one of the first and last times she'd ever do this.

In hindsight, she wished she'd started it sooner. And as the clock turned to 11:12, she closed her eyes.

Here's hoping for the best.

AJ had woken from a nightmare around four the next morning, and despite being assured that William wasn't going anywhere, still couldn't calm down.

"Love, it's alright. I'm still here, mon cherie; I'm not leaving." he murmured into her hair, cradling her as she continued to sob.

"I...I...I j-just...w-what if th-the w-wish means y-you d-d-disap-" she stuttered shakily.

"I'm right here, sweetie. Right here." he repeated, lifting one of her hands to rest it against his cheek.

"D-don't g-go. Stay with m-me."

"Doll, whatever has gotten into you to make you think I'm leaving?"

At her protested whimper, he blinked, and moved her to the bed, taking her lips in a more-than-possessive kiss to prove his point. Her arms snaked around his neck and she fought to keep herself from lying in an awkward position.

"It's just...y-you always do."

"When have I ever? I told you last time you'd remember me, and you did, darling."

"No. I'm d-done taking br-breaks from seeing you! I want...ugh, f-fuck, I want to be by your side. Al-always. I can g-get a degree online if I have to. Let me tour with you and the boys. Let me officially date you!"

William grinned.

"So that's what all that was about. You're afraid I'll not love you after this is over, as I suspect it will be if the wish did indeed work. Adeline..." he paused, she'd looked directly at him with so much fear and apprehension in her eyes he was unsure if it was the same girl.

"AJ..." he started, her eyes widened. For the two years she'd known him, he never once had called her AJ.

"I love you. Nothing'll change that. To be honest, the first night when this all started, in your room - with you safe asleep tucked into me, the fox pelt tangled around you - I've never wanted to be mortal more than in that moment, to wish you could've listened to the beating of a heart that would gladly stop for you, even though I'd already stopped yours. And the next morning, when your friend walked in - I don't think I've ever felt more...alive. Or atleast, I felt...not as old as I am.I know I'm explaining alot, but I'll agree. You DO need to officially be dating me already, I'll see to it that you become part of the road team so you can always be by me."

She sniffled and gawked, too happy for words.

"So. if."

"Even if everything's fixed, you're mine. Eternally."

She squeaked, kissing him with everything she couldn't put into words.

Once everyone had woken, everyone checked local crime reports - seeming to find mysterious activity had dropped dramatically overnight.

"I'll be damned. It was the wish." Chuck stated, hi fiving Amelia as she stumbled into the kitchen, one arm clinging to Seb, who still had yet to put a shirt on.

AJ winked from across the room, being the only one paying enough attention to notice the slight hickies littering her stomach because her crop top didn't hide it.

"Oh shut up, so it's even. I'll still heal faster than you." she joked.

AJ rolled her eyes, "Alright, Fleur you wanna go?!"

"Oh settle down. So now that everything's taken care of and the threat seems to have...gone, what do we do?" Gerard brought up.

"Well. We stay here." Jeff.

"I get to go back to home...I've missed Uno's...those girls are always drunk and pretty..." Brendon went off remembering one of Chicago's better pizza pubs/bars, Ryan nodding alongside him.

"And we were supposed to play a few shows this winter out East," Ray pointed out.

"So it looks like we just carry on the band lives we had, then. As always." Chuck.

"Except there's us." Amelia, who stood with Seb's arms around her, added meekly, realizing she was starting to turn into AJ after all.

"Adeline and I have already talked...she's content with continuing to live with me, the boys and I can have her things out of her flat in about two days and everything set in the mansion. Amelia, you're welcome to join us."

Automatically her eyes drifted to Carden, who had enough sense to not do anything. After what he'd already put her through, just being around him was going to be impossible.

"I've gotta go to college, guys. I need to be in the real world. It's been fun, and music's a big part of my life, but it can't be ALL my life."

Nods were seen all around.

"Looks like everyone knows what the plan is. And next time guys, let's try to keep these conferences atleast a few years apart." Mikey added with a laugh, just happy to finally be able to relax (well, if you could call touring relaxing) again and not have to worry about people or anything remotely supernatural.

"A few years sounds perfect. And until then, we can use twitter to stay in touch. Can you all follow back? I already know I follow all of you, I'm rarityinempathy." AJ explained.

"We got it. Technology'll keep us together - ever if the years may not. But yeah. Let's try not to do this again." Frank said, reaching for his phone.

"Agreed."

And everyone laughed. There would be no more screaming or being afraid of the dark. No more not playing Pokemon for fear of them talking to you or getting sucked into the game. No more running around the woods with a flashlight. The scary stuff was over, and now it was just good times ahead.


End file.
